What is an Osteopathic Physician (D.O.)?
A D.O. is a fully licensed physician. D.O.s are licensed to practice medicine, prescribe medication, perform surgery, and provide osteopathic manipulative treament. During medical school, D.O.s learn the medical curriculum taught to M.D.s, with additional courses in osteopathic diagnosis and treatment. In these courses, D.O.s are trained to use their hands to diagnose problems in the body and to treat those problems with osteopathic manipulation. An osteopathic doctor is uniquely trained to integrate your general medical care with the care of your body’s structure, and to understand the relationships between the two. An osteopathic physician who specializes in O.M.T may earn board certification in Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (N.M.M).
A doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) is a fully trained and licensed physician who prescribes medications, performs surgery, and utilizes all accepted scientific methods to maintain and restore your optimum health. Today’s D.O. provides comprehensive medical care, including preventive medicine, diagnosis, appropriate use of drugs, surgery, manipulative procedures, and hospital referral. And that care is provided with the “D.O. Difference”: an emphasis on the human body as one complete system that performs best when all of the body’s components function together harmoniously. Osteopathic medicine began as a reform movement in the late 1880s. Andrew Taylor Still, a traditionally trained physician, set out to improve medical care. He felt the major emphasis should be on preserving health rather than merely treating disease. He believed in treating the patient as a whole, taking into account the impact of psychosocial and environmental factors on illness, and introduced the concept of h
