I have to agree with DO BRO. The problem is not educating one's own patients. If they are already in your office, or if they were referred to you by a colleague or are under your care in the hospital, they already ASSUME you are some sort of physician, so you are just "filling in the blanks" in terms of informing them what exactly DO stands for.
Informing family and friends is relatively easy, because they give you the benefit of their time to listen to what you have to say. As for the general public, when you say casually to someone that you go to a DO school or are a DO, and they say "like a chiropractor, right?!", you don't always have the time for a lecture on osteopathic medicine. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, you only have time for a comment such as "No, DOs are fully licensed physicians just like MDs." Then, it is up to the person to believe it or not. And for many it is hard to believe this kind of reply these days, when chiropractors, for instance, go around advertising themselves as "primary care physicians" (GAG ME WITH A SPOON!!!!!). A lot of people know that, despite what chiros say, they are NOT "real physicians" (and they truly aren't). So,us saying "oh, DOs are physicians just like MDs", doesn't do much.
IMHO, it is the AOA's job to educate the public as to the meaning of these two letters after one's name. Personally, I was not too thrilled with the latests efforts, because they were way above the attention span and understanding of your "average Joe patient". And they sounded like DOs go around saying that they are just as MDs and then some. It was somewhat disparaging towards our alopathic colleagues, in my view, and even though there are MDs out there that refer to DOs disparagingly as "lesser qualified physicians", this hasn't been the stand of the AMA for a long time now.
I think that the AOA should emphasize more the issue that DOs are fully trained physicians, point. So when someone sees DO after a Dr.'s name, he will consider being seen by the doctor as he would been seen by a MD. It is when that person is finally in your office, as a patient, and you use osteopathic manipulation on him/her that the occasion arises to explain the "DO difference".
Just my point of view.