The DOS: Osteopathic Medicine in America

An excellent, well written and easy to read book. Obviously well researched and explains a lot about the way the profession is today and why it is this way. My only complaint is that I wish there was more!!! A lot has happened to the D.O.'s since I graduated from Kirksville in 1976, and I think this is a new area to explore. We are finally pretty well accepted and treated as true medical colleagues in most places, so the equality and parity so long sought have been achieved, yet there is a resurgence of "separateness" which I see. It would interesting to explore that.

Simply should be on every medical student's (osteopathic and allopathic) book shelf. Any osteopathic medical student or physician would be remiss if they did not read this book.

This book paints a picture on the birth and growth of osteopathic medicine in the United States. It illustrates the successes, disappointments, and the many trials that osteopathic medicine has endured since its inception. Additionally, it gives the reader an insight into the influence of the American Medical Association and M.D.'s in general. I think that this is a must read for future M.D.'s and D.O.'s alike because it provides a tremendously well written description of these physicians.

I bought the book in order to be prepared for my med school interview but never got it quite read. I found out upon my arrival at school in the fall that the book was a required read for my History of Osteopathic Medicine course. The book is a great resource to make a person more familiar with an ever growing branch of medicine; that there isn't just a world of MD's. And who knows, maybe it will get you a bit ahead of the game for your first class in your Osteopathic medical school :o)

As chairperson of the social medicine department at Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Norman Gevitz knows firsthand the details of ostepathy. This book is a thorough, well-written review of osteopathic medicine's climb into the medical arena; originating from the depths of the mind of its founder, Andrew Taylor Still in the late 1800's, into the growing profession of the 1980's. Unfortunately, however, it does not cover the growth and expansion of osteopathy in the last twenty years of the 20th century. It does explain, though, the legal and social struggles that osteopathy survived in its first 90 years. Gevitz also does a wonderful job explaining what ostopathy is and how it evolved from a holistic, drug-free approach to medical care into an alternative, legally licensed medical practice. I highly recommend this book for osteopathic medical school applicants. It is also an excellent book for those interested in the history and sociology of medicine in the United States.