Look closely at the names on a hospital’s staff list and you’ll see two sets of letters after them: MD and DO. Patients ask about it all the time, usually in a slightly worried tone — is a DO a “real doctor”? Yes. Here’s the difference, and why for most patients it doesn’t change much.
Two degrees, one license
An MD is a Doctor of Medicine; a DO is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Both are physicians. Both complete four years of medical school after college, then residency training in a specialty. Both are licensed to practice medicine, prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. In New York, MDs and DOs hold the same physician license, issued by the same state office.
Since 2020, MD and DO graduates also train in the same residency system, under a single accreditation body. A DO cardiologist and an MD cardiologist in Buffalo may well have trained side by side.
So what’s different?
Osteopathic medical schools teach everything an MD school does, plus a set of hands-on techniques called osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) — using the hands to diagnose and treat problems in muscles, bones and joints. The osteopathic tradition also puts weight on treating the whole person rather than an isolated symptom, though, in fairness, every good medical school claims that now.
In practice, how much a DO uses OMT varies widely. Some family physicians and sports medicine doctors use it regularly; many DO specialists rarely or never do. If it interests you, ask.
Are DOs more likely to be primary care doctors?
Historically, yes — a larger share of DOs go into family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics than MDs do. But you’ll find DOs in every specialty, from orthopedic surgery to psychiatry.
Does it matter which one you choose?
For nearly all patients, no. What matters is the doctor’s training and board certification in the specialty you need, their experience with your condition, where they practice and which hospitals they’re affiliated with, and how they treat you — all things you can learn from a profile, a phone call and other patients’ reviews.
On ProVerdicts, each physician’s credential appears right after their name, alongside the medical school they attended and the year they graduated. Browse family doctors or internists in the Buffalo area to see both.
