|
Osteopathic
Medicine and Medical Education In Brief |
| The nation
faces a critical physician workforce shortage. By 2020, the
gap between our physician supply and demand will range from
50,000 to more than 100,000.
Colleges of
osteopathic medicine are graduating more and more students
each year. By 2010, approximately 4,000 new osteopathic
physicians will enter the workforce each year.
The
nation's approximately 55,000 fully licensed
osteopathic physicians practice the entire scope of modern
medicine, bringing a patient-centered, holistic, hands-on
approach to diagnosing and treating illness and injury. |
Today, nearly one in five medical
students in the United States is training to be an
osteopathic physician.
Osteopathic physicians can
choose any specialty, prescribe drugs, perform surgeries,
and practice medicine anywhere in the United States.
Osteopathic physicians bring the additional benefits of
osteopathic manipulative techniques to diagnose and treat
patients.
Osteopathic physicians work in
partnership with patients to help them achieve a high level
of wellness by focusing on health education, injury
prevention, and disease prevention. |
|
About Osteopathic Medicine
Osteopathic
medicine is a distinct form of medical practice in the United
States. Osteopathic medicine provides all of the benefits of modern
medicine including prescription drugs,
surgery, and the use of
technology to diagnose disease and evaluate injury. It also offers
the added benefit of hands-on diagnosis and treatment through a
system of therapy known as osteopathic manipulative medicine.
Osteopathic medicine emphasizes helping each person achieve a high
level of wellness by focusing on health promotion and disease
prevention.
Osteopathic
medicine was founded in the late 1800s in Kirksville, Missouri, by
Andrew Taylor Still, MD, who recognized that the medical practices
of the day often caused more harm than good. Still focused on
developing a system of medical care that would promote the
body's innate ability to heal itself. He called this system
of medicine osteopathy, now known as osteopathic medicine.
Osteopathic physicians, also known as DOs, work
in partnership with their patients. They consider the impact that
lifestyle and community have on the health of each individual, and
they work to break down barriers to good health. DOs are licensed to
practice the full scope of medicine in all 50 states. They practice
in all types of environments, including the military, and in all
types of specialties, from family medicine to
obstetrics,
surgery,
and aerospace medicine.
DOs are trained to look at the whole person
from their first days of medical school, which means they see each
person as more than just a collection of organ systems and body
parts that may become injured or diseased. This holistic approach to
patient care means that osteopathic medical students learn how to
integrate the patient into the health care process as a partner.
They are trained to communicate with people from diverse
backgrounds, and they get the opportunity to practice these skills
in their classrooms and learning laboratories, frequently with
standardized and simulated patients.
The osteopathic medical profession has a proud
heritage of producing primary care practitioners. In fact, the
mission statements of the majority of osteopathic medical schools
state plainly that their purpose is the production of primary care
physicians. Osteopathic medical tradition preaches that a strong
foundation in primary care makes one a better physician, regardless
of what specialty they may eventually practice.
Today, when the challenge of ensuring an
adequate number of primary care physicians extends to osteopathic
medicine, the majority of most osteopathic medical school graduates
choose careers in primary care. Osteopathic medicine also has a
special focus on providing care in rural and urban underserved
areas, allowing DOs to have a greater impact on the U.S.
population's health and well-being than their numbers would suggest.
While DOs constitute 7 percent of all U.S. physicians, they are
responsible for 16 percent of patient visits in communities with
populations of fewer than 2,500.
Osteopathic medicine is also rapidly growing!
Nearly one in five medical students in the United States is
attending an osteopathic medical school.
In addition to studying all of the typical
subjects you would expect student physicians to master, osteopathic
medical students take approximately 200 additional hours of training
in the art of osteopathic manipulative medicine. This system of
hands-on techniques helps alleviate pain, restores motion, supports
the body's natural functions and influences the body's
structure to help it function more efficiently.
One key concept osteopathic medical students
learn is that structure influences function. Thus, if there is a
problem in one part of the body's structure, function in that
area, and possibly in other areas, may be affected.
Another integral tenet of osteopathic medicine is the body's
innate ability to heal itself. Many of osteopathic medicine's
manipulative techniques are aimed at reducing or eliminating the
impediments to proper structure and function so the self-healing
mechanism can assume its role in restoring a person to health.
In addition to a strong history of providing
high-quality patient care, DOs conduct clinical and basic science
research to help advance the frontiers of medicine and to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the osteopathic approach to patient
care. Currently, several organizations are involved in osteopathic
clinical research in coordination with the Osteopathic Research
Center. The facility's staff develops, facilitates, and
conducts multi-center, collaborative clinical research studies.
For more information about the osteopathic
research center (ORC),
visit the ORC website.
View our Fast Facts About Osteopathic Medical
Education and Publications and Resources sections to read facts and
figures about applicants, osteopathic medical schools, osteopathic
medical students, and osteopathic medicine.
