By Michele Deluca
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
As a growing number of studies predict a U.S. physician workforce shortage, colleges of osteopathic medicine are graduating more than 4,000 new osteopathic physicians each year.
The nation’s approximately 55,000 osteopathic physicians practice the entire scope of modern medicine, bringing a patient-centered, holistic, hands-on approach to diagnosing and treating illness and injury.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, nearly one in five medical students in the United States is training to be an osteopath and, upon graduation, can choose any specialty, prescribe drugs, perform surgeries, and practice medicine anywhere in the United States.
Osteopathic doctors, or DOs, bring the additional benefits of manipulative techniques to diagnose and treat patients and work towards a partnership with patients to help them achieve a high level of wellness by focusing on health education, and injury and disease prevention, according to the association.
