A Second Voice: A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio (review)

This brief history of Ohio D.O.s begins with the work of Andrew Taylor Still (1828–1917), whose theories on the intersection of nerves, spinal chord, and brain evolved into a science of healing called osteopathy (from osteon, "bone," and pathos, "suffering"). From rather humble beginnings in Baldwin, Kansas, to his later activities in Kirksville, Missouri, Still was able to demonstrate to an ever-increasing number of believers that regular medicine's destructive combination of bleeding and toxic pharmaceuticals could be replaced with a more benign but effective manipulative therapy that focused on the musculoskeletal system.

Carol Poh Miller, author of several organizational histories and of a history of Cleveland, provides here an interesting account of Ohio osteopathy. The story begins with the sect's earliest doctors and moves to the 1898 formation of the Ohio Association for the Advancement of Osteopathy (later reconstituted as the Ohio Osteopathic Society) and the restrictive aspects of the state's Medical Practice Act (1896) and Love Act (1900), which effectively prohibited osteopathy from being practiced legally. Through strong leadership and the active lobbying efforts of the association, the medical laws were amended to recognize osteopathy. With this formal recognition, the field began a period of unprecedented growth that cemented its gains, impressed upon patients the value of osteopathic therapy, and succeeded in wresting equal practice rights for its doctors.

By the time of America's entry into World War I, Ohio was well represented in the profession, furnishing two presidents of the American Osteopathic Association; hosting several national conventions; pioneering in osteopathic continuing education; constructing numerous hospitals and health clinics; building women's auxiliary societies to help finance scholarships, student loans, and research; and remaining ever vigilant against the rising power of the American Medical Association. Osteopathy lost ground during the Depression, but regained it slowly until, by 1943, it achieved full practice rights and representation on the state medical board. Yet, not until Public Law 763 was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 were D.O.s commissioned in the medical corps of the armed services.

In the postwar years, Ohio ranked fifth among the states in membership in the American Osteopathic Association; this, along with the fact that it had become one of the largest contributors of students for the six existing osteopathic colleges, led to a determination to seek a state-supported college of osteopathic medicine. The outgrowth of that effort was House Bill 229, calling for the creation of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Poh recounts the history of the school and of its deans, faculty, students, and alumni. She also provides a helpful timeline of osteopathic medicine in Ohio, as well as a listing of presidents of the Ohio Osteopathic Association and of Ohio's osteopathic hospitals. Lightly mentioned but left unresolved by the author are such issues as the lack of osteopathic research in the state's medical schools, the marginalization of D.O. identity, and the replacement of traditional osteopathic spinal manipulation techniques with pharmaceuticals and the modalities of conventional medicine. For that analysis, one must rely on the work of Norman Gevitz, whose revised history, The D.O.'s: Osteopathic Medicine in America (2004), remains the standard.