Quality, cost of care similar between DO and MD

May 30, 2023 – A new study shows that doctors of osteopathic medicine, or DOs, have similar patient outcomes and costs of care to doctors of medicine (MDs).

According to the recently published study on the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Of the more than 329,000 Medicare hospitalizations analyzed:

• Patient mortality was 9.4% for allopathic physicians versus 9.5% for hospital osteopaths
• Hospital readmission was 15.7% for allopathic doctors versus 15.6% for hospital osteopaths
• Length of hospital stay was 4.5 days for both allopathic doctors and osteopathic hospitals

Health care costs for hospitalized elderly patients were also similar, with a difference of just one dollar in the study.

\”These findings offer reassurance to patients by demonstrating that they can expect high-quality care regardless of whether their physicians received their training from allopathic or osteopathic medical schools,\” senior author Yusuke Tsugawa said in a news release. PhD, MPH, MD. Tsugawa is an associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an associate professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

The study\’s co-authors are Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD, of Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Bureau of Economic Research; Nate Gross, MD, MBA, of Doximity; and Atsushi Miyawaki, MD, PhD, of UCLA and the University of Tokyo.

DO and MD do the same job after a similar and rigorous education. But osteopathic training has a more holistic or whole-person approach to care delivery, which includes an increased focus on manipulation of the musculoskeletal system, such as the use of stretching and massage to reduce pain or improve mobility.

Both types of doctors are licensed to practice medicine in every state. However, UCLA researchers say that the majority of practicing physicians hold a medical degree, while about 10 percent have a medical degree. The tides are starting to turn, however, with the number of DOs rising rapidly along with the number of osteopathic medical schools and training programs.

The findings bring good news to older and less affluent rural patients as osteopathic physicians are more likely to serve these types of patients, according to Tsugawa and colleagues.

The researchers attribute similar patient outcomes and costs of care to the rigorous and standardized medical training that both types of physicians receive. Both types of doctors must also meet comparable accreditation standards, including four-year programs of study that mix science and clinical rotations, Tsugawa said.

However, the study has several limitations. First, the study focused on a sample of the 20 percent of Medicare fee-paying beneficiaries who were hospitalized, meaning the findings are limited to an older population with medical conditions. Tsugawa et al. he said the findings may not translate to other patient populations.

Furthermore, they limited the findings to specific measures of care quality and resource use, so these findings may not generalize to other findings.

Despite the limitations, the researchers wrote in the study that the findings \”should be reassuring to policymakers, medical educators, and patients because they suggest that any differences between allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, both in terms of educational approach and students attending enroll, are not associated with differences in the quality or cost of care, at least in the hospital setting”.