Not long after he set up a family practice in the late 1970s, Dr. Larry Silverberg learned that local physicians were saying disturbing things about him: that he was not, in their opinion, "a real doctor."
Never mind his Maryland medical license, his years in the U.S. Public Health Service and residency at the University of Miami School of Medicine, where he went on to teach.
He was a doctor of osteopathy, or D.O. - licensed to practice medicine but schooled in a holistic philosophy whose 19th-century roots can appear exotic and arcane. "For a long time, D.O.s were shunned by everybody," Silverberg said.
But as Silverberg's practice in Ellicott City blossomed over time and conventional doctors grew to accept him, osteopathic medicine has undergone a renaissance.
Many laymen still believe that osteopathic physicians are "bone doctors," a misunderstanding based on the discipline's original premise that hands-on manipulation of the spine and muscles can fix much of what ails you.
But as today's osteopaths branch into standard medical specialties and fill the demand for primary care doctors, many patients don't realize they're seeing a D.O. until they see the initials on a nameplate. They also might notice that the doctor is asking as many questions about their diet, exercise habits and family life as their physical symptoms.
"It's a concept of osteopathic medicine that you take care of the person, not the problem," said Dr. Tyler Cymet, an osteopathic physician in charge of family medicine at Sinai Hospital.
Since 1990, the number of osteopaths in the United States has more than doubled, to 61,000, although they still represent a fraction of the nation's 690,000 licensed physicians. Even in Maryland, with no homegrown schools of osteopathy, their ranks have more than tripled, from 182 to 680, with osteopaths practicing and teaching in the Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland medical systems.
"Now, D.O.s are accepted by the medical profession on equal footing," said Silverberg. In fact, he worries that osteopathy has become so mainstream that it is losing its identity.
This year, applications to osteopathic medical schools hit a record high, with 11,650 students competing for 4,462 first-year spots. New osteopathic medical schools have sprouted, including three in rural areas of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee that have had trouble attracting doctors.
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