What is a DO?

February 12, 2016 - - File under Did You Know?
hands checking pulse

DOs are complete physicians, fully trained and licensed to prescribe medicine and to perform surgery. Many DOs incorporate osteopathic manipulative treatment into the care they provide. With OMT, osteopathic physicians use their hands to diagnose illness and injury and encourage your body to heal itself.

What does D.O. stand for?

Doctor of Osteopathy

DOs and MDs are Alike in Many Ways

  • Students entering both DO and MD medical colleges typically have already completed four-year bachelor’s degrees with an emphasis on scientific courses.
  • Both DOs and MDs complete four years of medical school.
  • After medical school, both DOs and MDs obtain graduate medical education through internships, residencies and fellowships. This training lasts three to eight years and prepares DOs and MDs to practice a specialty.
  • Both DOs and MDs can choose to practice in any specialty of medicine—such as pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry, surgery or ophthalmology.
  • DOs and MDs must pass comparable examinations to obtain state licenses.
  • DOs and MDs both practice in accredited and licensed health care facilities.
  • Together, DOs and MDs enhance the state of health care available in the U.S.

The Osteopathic Approach

  • Osteopathic medical schools emphasize training students to become primary care physicians.
  • Approximately 60% of practicing osteopathic physicians practice in the primary care specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.
  • DOs practice a “whole person” approach to medicine. Instead of just treating you for specific symptoms or illnesses, they regard your body as an integrated whole.
  • Osteopathic physicians focus on preventive health care.
  • ​DOs receive extra training in the musculoskeletal system—your body’s interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones that makes up two-thirds of your body mass. This training provides osteopathic physicians with an understanding of how an illness or injury in one part of your body can affect other parts.
  • Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is incorporated into the training and practice of osteopathic physicians. With OMT, osteopathic physicians use their hands to diagnose illness and injury and to encourage your body’s natural tendency toward good health.

To learn about our Doctor of Osteopathy, visit Dr. Suzanne Staraitis’s staff page.

For more information regarding Osteopathy please visit www.osteopathic.org.

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