So Your Doctor Is a DO. Does That Matter?

Well|So Your Doctor Is a D.O. Does That Matter?

By most measures, osteopathic medicine is a profession in its prime.

The number of doctors of osteopathic medicine, or D.O.s, has grown 70 percent in the last decade and is expected to continue expanding.

More than a quarter of all medical students in the United States are training to become D.O.s, thanks in part to limited slots in traditional medical schools and ever-growing openings at osteopathic schools (14 campuses have opened in the last five years).

And in recent years, the field has gained prestige as its doctors have risen to the highest medical posts in the country: leading top medical systems, overseeing NASA’s medical team, running the most followed medical page on social media and, during the last three administrations, overseeing the medical care of the president of the United States.

“I do think we are — I don’t want to say infiltrating — but we are everywhere,” said Dr. Teresa A. Hubka, the president of the American Osteopathic Association.

Yet the changing face of medicine has largely been invisible to the public. Beyond vague notions that D.O.s are more holistic, or stereotypes that they were rejected from traditional medical schools, very few patients know how a D.O.’s training might shape their health care. One of the most commonly searched questions on Google about D.O.s, who have had full rights to practice medicine in the United States since 1973, is whether they are physicians.

Over the course of Dr. Christina Weaver’s career as an osteopathic doctor, she has been mistaken for a “bone doctor” (orthopedist), a homeopath (an alternative healer with no medical degree) and a chiropractor (also no medical degree).