Research indicates that there is no difference in health outcomes, healthcare costs for patients treated by traditional doctors or osteopaths

New UCLA-led research suggests that mortality rates, readmissions, length of stay, and health care expenditures were nearly identical for older hospitalized patients treated by physicians with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree.

While both traditional, or allopathic, medical schools and osteopathic medical schools offer the same rigorous health education, osteopathic training adds a more holistic, hands-on component involving manipulation of the musculoskeletal system, for example using stretching and massage to reduce pain or improve mobility .

“These findings provide reassurance to patients by demonstrating that they can expect high-quality care whether their physicians have received their training from allopathic or osteopathic medical schools,” said senior author Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, an associate professor of medicine in the Department of General Medicine. medicine. research in internal medicine and health services at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and associate professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

The study will be published May 30 in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Both types of doctors are licensed to practice medicine in every state. Currently, about 90% of practicing physicians have an MD degree and 10% have a DO degree. But the latter group is growing rapidly due to an increasing number of osteopathic medical schools, with their numbers increasing by 72% between 2010 and 2020, compared to a 16% increase in MDs over the same period, and their ranks are expected to continue to grow .

In addition, osteopathic physicians are more likely than their MD counterparts to serve patients in rural and underserved areas.

The researchers relied on four data sources: a 20% sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, representing approximately 329,500 people ages 65 and older who were hospitalized between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2019; Medicare data on provider practice and specialty; a comprehensive physician database compiled by Doximity, and the American Hospital Association’s annual survey of hospital characteristics. Of the patients, 77% were treated by MDs and 23% were treated by DOs.

The researchers found that patient death rates were 9.4% in the MDs versus 9.5% in the DOs, patient readmission rates were 15.7% versus 15.6%, respectively, health care expenditures were $1004 versus $ 1003, and length of stay was 4.5 days for both.

The results are similar because both types of medical schools offer rigorous, standardized medical education and meet similar accreditation standards, including four-year curricula that combine science and clinical rotations, Tsugawa said.

The study has some limitations, the researchers write, primarily the fact that it focused on older Medicare beneficiaries who had been hospitalized with medical conditions, so the results may not apply to other populations. In addition, they limited the results to specific measures of quality of care and resource utilization, so these findings may not be generalizable to other outcomes.

But the findings “should be reassuring to policy makers, medical educators and patients as they suggest that any differences between allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, either in terms of educational approach or students enrolling, are not associated with differences in quality or cost of care.” , at least in the inpatient setting,” the researchers write.