DO are not medical doctors. They may NOT use the designation MD.
Ding ding ding ding!
In the red trunks, we have Kid Carley. In the blue trunks, we have Bone Bender, aka, neverdem.
D.O.s are doctors of osteopathy, aka osteopathic physicians. MDs are allopathic physicians. You can find them both in the same post graduate medical programs, i.e. residencies.
Crudely, they are like a combined MD and chiropractor, although some DOs may take offense at that description. Some osteopaths believe they practice holistic medicine, as opposed to allopaths who are more systems oriented such as cardiologists, pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, etc. But DOs also go into all the specialties and subspecialties too.
IIRC, in California you can find the initials MD, DO in the same doc.
DO’s may not be MD’s but they certainly are Pysicians. I dealt with many DO’s as well as MD’s during my Banking career and found that I liked the DO’s better on average.
I found that most of the ones I knew had lives before becoming DO’s. One was an FBI agent, one was a chemist for DuPont (and a Korean War Army Officer Combat Veteran as well as a graduate of the Citadel) and my personal physician was a Pharmacist. All are extremely personable and bright. My Doctor is accredied in Internal Medicine and practices at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, the premier Heart Institute in the United States.