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Comment by lostlogin | Hacker News Reader

Why does osteopathy get a mention in this at all? Does anyone use them interchangeably?

In the US it's more or less normal for Osteopaths to be general doctors yes. The modern degree for an Osteopath in the US, DO, would cover roughly the same ground as MD (a conventional doctor) except from a different angle.

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

Historically these were very different approaches to medicine. In some countries osteopathy shrank and essentially went away, in the US instead it morphed until it's not different.

In France, Osteopathy is entirely different from conventional medicine and isn't taught in medical schools as it is considered to be unscientific. Also, osteopaths can't prescribe drugs. That being said, it's extremely popular among people who don't trust conventional doctors, or suffer from troubles that conventional medicine is unable to solve.

I don't know about the US medical system, but I'm a bit surprised about comments saying an osteopath is roughly the same thing an MD.

Edit: there's a dedicated page on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathic_medicine_in_the_Un...

> US DO graduates have historically applied for medical licensure in 87 countries outside of the United States, 85 of which provided them with the full scope of medical and surgical practice. The field is distinct from osteopathic practices offered in nations outside of the U.S., whose practitioners are generally not considered part of core medical staff nor of medicine itself.

Yeah DOs in the US are quite similar to an MD, and MDs aren’t ashamed to call them colleagues. However, I know from experience in France that I wouldn’t expect the same care or treatment as a DO in the US. A chiropractor here might be more of an apt comparison to osteopaths in France, though it’s bound to fail in some places.

The training, and resulting skills and privileges are nearly identical between DOs and MDs. I don’t know about interchangeable - every DO and MD I know would be offended if you put the wrong two letters after their name, but DO and MD schools are not significantly different paths to producing physicians.

I keep hearing this claimed, but I have never met a physician in my life who would honestly say that, given acceptance to both an MD and DO program, he would pick the DO. It is widely viewed as an alternative path to becoming a physician if you cannot get accepted by an MD program and do not want to go overseas.

I know a DO, and she was indeed not accepted by an MD program. But the end result is equivalent; doctors from her school are DOs, not MDs, but residency is the same, and you've got to have the same base of skills and knowledge to get into and through a residency, so there you go.

You have the same skills and knowledge but couldn’t get into the MD programme?

The important skills and knowledged are learned during the MD or DO program, not as much before. The DO programs are essentially lower prestige MD programs with a different name.

If there was a significant difference in the degree program, they'd need different residency programs prior to practice, and that's not the case, AFAIK.

This is a gotcha only if you assume programs use perfect meritocratic measurement of your skills and knowledge to decide who gets in.

In real life, there is some correlation, plus other uncorrelated items and just plain luck ;)

That's not the same question.

This Wikipedia page will answer your question. It's specific to the US medical system:

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

That was my first go to, followed by a search for evidence it ever works. The TLDR was that it’s showing promise that it might work for musculoskeletal pain.

https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/promising-evidence-that...

Right, but what most DOs actually do is just practice regular medicine, not osteopathy. (At least, the ones I interact with at major medical centers.) Like, unless you looked at the degree, you wouldn't notice.

Well, if you read the article, osteopathic schools did not participate in the moratorium. SO, it seems like a pretty crucial distinction in the context of this article.

> Well, if you read the article

That’s how I knew they were mentioned.

I have never know anyone who has been treated by an osteopath rather than a medical doctor (or whatever you call the conventional training). They are not equivalent in any of the medical systems I have been involved with.

They are equivalent in the US.

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

I see, interesting. In the US, osteopath medical schools are pretty nearly similar allopathic in terms of base curriculum; and ultimately the residency training (where one obtains their specialty) is the same.

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