FAMILY MEDICINE® COLUMN
By John C. Wolf, D.O.
Associate Professor of Family Medicine®
Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine

FAMILY MEDICINE IS THE CORNERSTONE OF OSTEOPATHY

[Editor's note: October 10-16 is National Osteopathic Medicine Week. This column is our way of adding to the celebration.]

Question: I've noticed the letters "D.O." after your name in my local paper and that you work at an osteopathic medical school. Could you explain the meaning of these terms?

Answer: Osteopathic medicine is a distinct discipline within the healing arts. Doctors of osteopathy, or D.O.s, are licensed to practice medicine and surgery in all 50 states. There are 32,000 D.O.s nationwide. They use all accepted methods of treatment and diagnosis including surgery, drugs and radiation.

Andrew Taylor Still, a surgeon in the Union army during the Civil War, founded the osteopathic profession. He began the first osteopathic college in Kirksville, Mo. just over one hundred years ago in 1892. Today, there are 16 osteopathic colleges in the United States. Many of these are state supported, including schools at Michigan State, North Texas and Oklahoma State universities and here at Ohio University.

Question: What kind of training do doctors of osteopathy have?

Answer: Before being admitted to a college of osteopathic medicine, students are required to complete a four year bachelor's degree. Their undergraduate work must have included training in biology, chemistry, physics and behavioral sciences. Once in osteopathic medical school, it takes four more years of intensive study to obtain a D.O. degree.

In our program at Ohio University, students spend their first two years in basic science courses such as microbiology, pharmacology, immunology, biochemistry and endocrinology. During this time students also take courses in the various body systems, study human anatomy and have their first patient contacts under close faculty supervision. Then students devote their final two academic years to clinical training in hospitals and doctors' offices where they refine their skills in diagnoses and treatment of a wide variety of medical problems.

After receiving his or her degree, the D.O. will complete a one-year internship. The new doctor can then legally "hang out his or her shingle," but most take two to five more years of residency training most often in a primary care specialty. However, D.O.s can be found in all medical fields from pediatrics and internal medicine to psychiatry and neurosurgery.

Question: Are there any differences between what you do and what an M.D. would do?

Answer: M.D.s and D.O.s are similar in many ways, but there are some important differences. The osteopathic philosophy says that the doctor is not a healer, but a facilitator, augmenting the body's natural ability to heal itself. Osteopathic medicine is based on the philosophy that the body is an interrelated whole, that no one part of the body can become diseased without disturbing other parts. The D.O. feels it's necessary to treat the person as a whole, not just the specific organ that may be malfunctioning at the time.

One of the differences between M.D.s and D.O.s is that an osteopathic physician's training puts more emphasis on the interrelationships between different body systems. The muscles and bones together are known as the musculoskeletal system, and the role it plays in health and illness underscore osteopathic precepts. D.O.s use osteopathic manipulative treatment, or OMT, as a means of improving the functioning of the musculoskeletal system and, indirectly, other body systems. It is the osteopath's use of manipulative treatments that is the most conspicuous difference between M.D.s and D.O.s.

According to recent figures from the American Osteopathic Association, 53 percent of D.O.s are family physicians, and the remainder are in other specialties. Among M.D.s the situation is reversed. The vast majority are practicing in specialties other than family medicine. The best statistics available from the American Academy of Family Physicians show that only 12 percent of M.D.s are now in family practice. So, there are some differences between M.D.s and D.O.s, but we also have much in common.

Family Medicine® is a weekly column. To submit questions, write to John C. Wolf, D.O., Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Grosvenor Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701.