Osteopathic Medicine Wiki

Welcome to The Osteopathic Medicine Wiki
The Osteopathic Medicine Wiki is in in progress compendium of all topics and knowledge related to Osteopathic Medicine. This includes but is not limited to history, philosophy, techniques, education, prominent members of the profession, schools, residencies, equipment, and so on.

''' This Wiki needs your help! If you're reading this, you're likely already a member of the osteopathic community. Currently the wiki is in "stub" status, and many of the articles on it have been lifted directly from other wiki's or sources. Many of the links in text go to "outside" sources rather than pages on the Osteopathic Wiki. While this is fine for now, the Osteopathic Medicine Wiki aims to contain a complete compendium of current osteopathic knowledge while being updated regularly with the latest research. This can only happen with the contributions and effort of Osteopathic Physicians and Students who imbue this wiki with their knowledge and experience. Please contribute any way your knowledge permits, but be sure to cite with references whenever possible. '''

Osteopathic Medicine
Osteopathic medicine is a branch of the medical profession in the United States, with practice rights in forty-seven countries, including most Canadian provinces. Physicians and surgeons who graduate from osteopathic medical schools are known as physicians or osteopathic medical physicians and hold a professional doctorate, the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), in contrast to the more familiar degree, the Doctor of Medicine, or MD.

Frontier physician Andrew Taylor Still founded the profession as a radical rejection of the prevailing system of medical thought of the 19th century. Still's techniques relied heavily on the manipulation of joints and bones to diagnose and treat illness, and he called his practices "osteopathy." By the middle of the 20th century, the profession had moved closer to mainstream medicine, adopting modern public health and biomedical principles. "Osteopaths" became "osteopathic physicians", gradually achieving full practice rights in all 50 states, including serving in the US armed forces as physicians.

In the 21st century, the training of osteopathic physicians in the United States is very similar to that of their MD counterparts. Osteopathic physicians attend 4 years of medical school followed by at least 3 years of residency. They use all conventional methods of diagnosis and treatment. Though still trained in osteopathic manipulative medicine, the modern derivative of Still's techniques, a minority of osteopathic physicians use it in actual practice.

Osteopathic medicine is considered by some in the United States to be both a profession and a social movement,especially for its historically greater emphasis on primary care and holistic health. However, any distinction between the MD and the DO professions has eroded steadily; diminishing numbers of DO graduates enter primary care fields, fewer use OMM, holistic patient care models are increasingly taught at MD schools, and increasing numbers of DO graduates choose to train in non-osteopathic residency programs.

US osteopathic medical physicians may be licensed in 47 countries, although osteopathic curricula in other countries differ from those in the United States. Osteopathic practitioners educated outside the US are known as "osteopaths" and their scope of practice excludes usual medical therapies and relies more on osteopathic manipulative medicine and other alternative medical modalities.

Pages
Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy

The History of Osteopathic Medicine

Manipulative Techniques

The Osteopathic Philosophy

Osteopathic Schools‎ ‎

Osteopathic Hospitals‎ ‎

Osteopathic Research‎ ‎

Osteopathic Licensure‎ ‎

Osteopathic Equipment‎ ‎

Famous Osteopathic Physicians‎