D.O. One in 20 physicians in the U.S. are D.O.'s but most patients don't know what they are. They are doctors of osteopathic medicine and they prescribe drugs and perform surgery and are the legal equivalents of their M.D. colleagues. Andrew Taylor Still originated the philosophy and science of osteopathic medicine in 1874. The introduction of this new school of medicine has had a profound effect on healthcare as we know it today because it has maintained and nurtured a truly wholistic approach to the treatment of disease. Today, osteopathy represents one of three major choices that patients have for treatment, in addition to allopathic medicine and surgery.
Osteopaths elsewhere restrict their practice to manipulation only.
Andrew Taylor Still was a licensed MD who lived from 1828 to 1917. In 1892, Dr. Still founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri. It was originally chartered to award the M.D. degree. After completion of a rotating internship D.O.'s are qualified to enter residency programs to become board certified to practice invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, surgery, pathology, and all other recognized treatment modalities including osteopathic manipulative medicine. A complete system of medical care, Osteopathy subscribes to a philosophy that combines the needs of the patient with the current practice of medicine, surgery and obstetrics.