how do you explain osteopathic medicine to naive parents?

[mrjbb]

To a certain extent your parents are right in terms of no one knowing who they are. However that is beginning to change. By the year 2020 DO's are expected to make up 15% of the medical community. The reason why people don't know about DO's is because in some states they don't have to post DO after their name but would write Dr. so and so Pediatrician. Therefore no one would ever know. In many hospitals when doctor takes on a case they don't introduce themselves as Dr. so and so DO but Dr. so and so what brought to hospital today. In terms of a stigma that is going away as well as scores are rising to be accepted in DO programs. Some schools have the same MCAT scores as lower tier MD schools. With more time people will start hearing about DO's.

Not to mention in some hospitals DO's or MD's write Dr. blah blah instead of having their medical initials behind their names.

So there are many instances where you CAN'T tell the difference, unless the individual states it..

P.S. Maybe you were referring to the same thing as me, but I thought you meant when some Dr's advertise or post up signs for their practice, either way still applies.

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[MaximusD]

Truthfully, there are always going to be patients -- individuals in need of medical care

Frankly, the only thing I am looking for is the respect of my patients and my peers as the result of doing good work.

It doesn't mean jack what people think of me based on my professional initials... if they're that type of person to judge without thinking or at least asking, then I don't really need to deal with them.

My father used to tell me that DOs were inferior when I was younger, but has since come around. He sees the current medical model as an extraordinary thing in most regards, except for its rigidity about acceptance of new modalities of care. In that respect, he feels as though osteopathic medicine, through its acceptance of neuromuscular and musculoskeletal manipulatory medicine, is at least one step above the current model simply through its reasonable flexibility if nothing else...