[2][3][4] DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licensed as a physician or surgeon and thus have full medical and surgical practicing rights in all 50 US states.
[5] Osteopathic medicine (as defined and regulated in the United States) emerged historically from the quasi-medical practice of osteopathy, but has become a distinct and proper medical profession.
[8] One notable difference between DO and MD training is that DOs spend an additional 300–500 hours to study pseudoscientific hands-on manipulation of the human musculoskeletal system (osteopathic manipulative technique) alongside conventional evidence-based medicine and surgery like their MD peers.
[23]A minority of DOs continue to use the old terms, and the American Academy of Osteopathy retains the old usage in its name.
Furthermore, the accreditation agencies for both degrees, LCME and COCA for MD and DO, respectively, are recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME).
[29] According to Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, "the training, practice, credentialing, licensure, and reimbursement of osteopathic physicians is virtually indistinguishable from those of physicians with MD qualifications, with 4 years of osteopathic medical school followed by specialty and subspecialty training and board certification".
In 2021, the average MCAT and GPA for students entering US-based MD programs were 511.5 and 3.73,[30] respectively, and 504.0 and 3.55 for DO matriculants.
[31] DO medical schools are more likely to accept non-traditional students,[32][33] who are older and entering medicine as a second career, or coming from non-science majors.
[34][35][36] Finally, COMLEX Level 3 is usually taken during the first year of residency, and consists of 420 multiple-choice questions and 26 Clinical Decision-Making (CDM) cases.
[46] Retired US Air Force flight surgeon and MD Harriet Hall,[47] one of the five founding editors of Science-Based Medicine,[48] has written that US Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine "must be distinguished from 'osteopaths', members of a less regulated or unregulated profession that is practiced in many countries" as "[o]steopaths get inferior training" that is not comparable to that undertaken by DOs.
The acknowledgment draws a clear separation between American DOs, who are medical doctors, and non-physician osteopaths trained outside of the United States.
The Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) approved a resolution in 2019 granting the AOA's request that AMCOA recognize US-trained DOs as fully licensed physicians with practice rights equivalent to MDs, opening its 20 member countries, which include Botswana, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to DOs.
[52] (Note: Some of the member African countries of AMCOA had independently licensed DOs before; however, this recognition unifies those who did or did not).
Similarly, on November 9, 2023, during its 15th biennial Members General Assembly in Bali, Indonesia, the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA) passed a resolution.
This resolution endorses the acknowledgement of U.S.-trained DOs as fully licensed physicians, on par with MDs, across 47 member countries of IAMRA.
[53] IAMRA members include the medical councils of the following countries: Albania, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Eswatini, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Oman, Pakistan, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Zimbabwe.