health care
Alphabet Soup
M.D., D.O., N.D. — what’s the difference between docs?
S
ick? Who ya gonna call? Your doctor, of course. But here’s where it gets muddy since today’s doctors can sport a plethora of initials after their names: M.D., D.O., N.D. Which got us thinking: What do those initials really mean, and who should we really call? Let’s tackle the easy part first, the initials: M.D.: Doctor of Medicine D.O.: Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine N.D.: Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Photo: © iStockphoto.com/skynesher.
A Brief History
According to eNotes.com, an Egyptian, Imhotep, was the first medical doctor. He lived around 2560 B.C. and wrote a textbook on the treatment of wounds, broken bones and tumors. You might call Imhotep a before-his-time Renaissance man, since he was also an astrologer and the architect of Egypt’s earliest pyramid. Future Egyptians actually worshipped him as a god. Hippocrates, founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine, lived in Greece circa 460-370 B.C. and established medicine as a profession. Today, we know him as the father of Western medicine and the author of the Hippocratic Oath, taken by physicians who swear to practice medicine ethically and honestly.
The first medical school to award academic degrees opened in Baghdad during the Middle Ages, followed by schools in Egypt, Spain, Persia and Northwest Africa. The first United States schools to grant the M.D. degree were Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the University of Maryland in the late 18th century. Andrew Taylor Still opened the first school of osteopathic medicine in Missouri in 1892. Still was a medical doctor and surgeon who served the Union Army during the Civil War. From his work on the battlefield, and the death of three of his children from spinal meningitis in 1864, he devoted his life to studying the human body, searching for a better way to fight disease. Still believed that by correcting problems in the body’s structure through the use of manual techniques now known as Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment, the body’s ability to function and to heal itself could be greatly improved. In 1902, Benedict Lust founded the American School of Naturopathy. The following 15 years, the various forms of natural medicine were combined and merged into naturopathy. Today, naturopathic medicine focuses on holistic treatments, prevention of disease and comprehensive diagnosis.
by valerie foster
Our experts M.D. The American Medical Association would not supply a spokesman and referred us to the AMA’s website to answer our questions. D.O. Ronald Marino, D.O., spokesman for the American Osteopathic Association, is an associate chairman of pediatrics at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., and a clinical professor of pediatrics at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury and the State University of New York Medical School in Stony Brook, where he teaches students training to become M.D.s. N.D. Jared Skowron, N.D., a fulltime professor at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine (the only naturopathic medical school on the East Coast licensed by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education), specializes in pediatrics and treating autistic spectrum disorders in children. He is author of Fundamentals in Naturopathic Pediatrics.
To learn about the differences among these professionals, turn to page 46.
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