Rural areas are suffering from a shortage of primary care physicians as medical doctors are drawn to higher paying specialties in large cities, according to a report from KFF Health News published June 6 on Medscape.
In many towns, osteopathic physicians are filling in the gaps. While DOs attend different medical schools than MDs, their training is otherwise comparable.
Both types of physicians are licensed to perform a full range of medicine. From 1999 to 2022, the number of practicing DOs in the U.S. had quadrupled, growing from 25,000 to over 110,000. In that same period, the number of MDs in the U.S. rose 91 percent.
Over half of DOs work in primary care, compared to less than a third of MDs. The number of osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000, and many new programs are in more rural states, which leads graduates to practice nearby in smaller towns. Students at osteopathic schools tend to do their initial training at community hospitals.
Data from the University of Iowa shows that DOs, at least in the state of Iowa, are actively filling care gaps. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of Iowa DOs based outside of urban areas increased by 29 percent. In some towns, every physician practicing is a DO.