21st Century, Frontier Medicine

Today's osteopathic physicians (like me) serve as modern-day medical pioneers.

We continue the tradition of bringing health care to areas of greatest need:

• Approximately 65% of practicing osteopathic physicians specialize in primary care areas, such as pediatrics, family practice, obstetrics and gynecology, and internal medicine.

• Many D.O.s fill a critical need for physicians by practicing in rural and other medically underserved communities. 
Today osteopathic physicians continue to be on the cutting edge of medicine. D.O.s are able to combine today's medical technology with their ears, to listen with care to their patients; their eyes, to see their patients as whole persons; and their hands, to diagnose and treat injury and illness.

D.O.s bring something extra to medicine:

• Osteopathic medical schools emphasize training students to be primary care physicians.

• D.O.s practice a "whole person" approach to medicine. Instead of just treating specific symptoms or illnesses, they regard your body as an integrated whole.

• Osteopathic physicians focus on preventive health care. 

• D.O.s receive extra training in the musculoskeletal system-your body's interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones that make up two-thirds of your body mass. This training provides osteopathic physicians with a better understanding of the ways that an illness or injury in one part of your body can affect another.

• 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. By combining all other available medical options with OMT, D.O.s offer their patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.