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Comment by airhead969 | Hacker News Reader

What frightens me is that osteopath magical thinkers (DOs) are allowed to practice medicine in the US just like MDs. They're glorified chiropractors!

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Osteopaths in the UK and most other countries are quacks. Osteopaths in the US are real physicians. This is not a trick of labeling: In the US osteopath training is a science-based, rigorous medical program identical to that of an MD. Yes DOs are also trained in the historical "chiropractic"-like stuff, but most of the ones I know deemphasize that in practice.

Why have it at all? It's magical thinking like religion that needs to be debunked and obliterated. Religion and quackery have no place in scientific medicine!

In practice, it serves the purpose of letting less academically accomplished students become physicians without resorting to Caribbean medical schools. This isn't a net negative to society because much of the overachievement in the pre-med set is overlearning the game, not genuine accomplishment.

Talking to people who have gone to osteopathic medical schools, it seems like the true believers there have enough clout that they're not transforming into normal medical schools any time soon. But OMM is such a small part of the curriculum, it's not a huge burden for the majority of students who think it's nonsense.

I don't know about you, but if I learned that my doctor, with whom I trust my health, spent 4-6 hours a week in a class where they learned to say "Circle Circle Dot Dot, now you got the cootie shot" like a kindergarten rhyme... I don't care if 95% of them know it doesn't work and is a waste of time. I'd have serious concerns about their entire profession that they were even allowed to waste their time on something so unscientific.

(Not to mention a deep fear that I might get one of the 5% that will try to re-sell me rhyme based medicine as proven science).

I think a lot of it is history, a lot of DO schools were founded back with it was more of a viable theory and Med School wasn't much more scientific. Over a hundred years the school teaches changes, but the name and degree doesn't.

And MDs come from the historical branch of medicine that prescribed bloodletting and heroin.

Now both MDs and DOs take a more modern approach.

> Osteopathic medical school curricula are virtually identical to those at schools granting the MD degree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Osteopathic_Medicine...

And surgeons came from barbers. What's your point?

Virtually isn't the same. There is no need for DOs. Period.

Doesn’t the need arise from the constrained supply of MDs?

Yes. Well, kind of. More accurate to say shortage of MDs in specific specialties. DOs are much more likely to go into family/general practice/pediatrics/etc.

I kind of expect that long-term lots of DOs will be replaced by NPs and PAs. I've been to medical appointments three times this year and only saw a Doctor once. Got excellent care each time.

https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-an-osteopath#train...

"After graduating from medical school, DOs take a rigorous national licensure exam, which contains the same material as the exam to become an MD. Both kinds of doctor are licensed by state medical examination boards."

Tell the AMA to allow more MDs.

Or, better yet, collude with hospital systems and other care providers to side-step the AMA by giving NPs and PAs more autonomy to operate independently of an MD. You don't need four years of med school and a residency to do an annual health check-up for a pre-teen or put in a few stitches.

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