In 2024, the American Osteopathic Association’s (AOA’s) own publications called the profession’s founder “A.T. Still, MD, DO.” The style ran through its anniversary coverage that year: a book club column in June, a birthday tribute and the Memorial Lecture report in August, and a feature on Still’s Civil War service in November. (1–4)
Then the style changed. A January 2025 article in The DO has since been retitled “A.T. Still, DO,” though its web address still reads “a-t-still-md-do.” (5) In the April 2026 issue, David Fuller, DO, set out the record. Still trained by apprenticeship under his father. Missouri counties entered him on their rolls of physicians and surgeons, with the lines for a diploma left blank. He never earned an MD degree. According to Dr. Fuller, the only degree Still held was a DO, received in 1897 from the school he had founded five years earlier. Yet, Dr. Fuller concluded, Still was “recognized, and practiced, as a medical doctor.” (6)
If “MD” means a degree, the AOA was wrong in 2024. If it means what patients take it to mean, a licensed medical doctor, the AOA had it right. The license, not a diploma, made the founder a medical doctor.
The same month, The DO published a warning. DOs who present themselves as “DO, MD” or “MD, DO” on the strength of a diploma or certificate of equivalency, it said, risk legal and licensure trouble and the loss of patients’ trust. (7)
The messages are hard to reconcile. The founder, a licensed physician without an MD degree, was recognized as a medical doctor and styled “MD, DO” in the association’s pages as recently as 2024. (1–6) A licensed DO today, holding the same unrestricted license to practice medicine as any MD, is told the same pairing may mislead patients. (7,8)
The early school understood the difference between a title and a license. According to The DO, its first graduate, already an MD, was issued a “Diplomate in Osteopathy,” because the legal right of osteopaths to call themselves doctors had not yet been granted. (9)
One might ask what changed. Not Dr. Still’s record, which was there all along. Not patients, who still understand two plain words: medical doctor. The question for patients is not which letters a diploma carries, but whether the physician in front of them is licensed to practice medicine.
The AOA had it right in 2024. Mixed messages since then contribute to patient confusion.
References
1. American Osteopathic Association. Throwback: happy birthday, A.T. Still, MD, DO! 5 facts about the father of the profession. August 10, 2024. https://osteopathic.org/2024/08/10/throwback-happy-birthday-a-t-still-md-do-5-facts-about-the-father-of-the-profession/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
2. Arvia K. The DO Book Club, June 2024: ‘Autobiography of Andrew T. Still.’ The DO. June 2024. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/columns/the-do-book-club-june-2024-autobiography-of-andrew-t-still/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
3. A.T. Still Memorial Lecture: ‘Osteopathic physicians are the physicians our nation needs.’ The DO. August 2024. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2024/08/a-t-still-memorial-lecture-osteopathic-physicians-are-the-physicians-our-nation-needs/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
4. Callahan D. A brotherhood of veterans: read about the enduring bond between A.T. Still, MD, DO, and his Civil War colonel. The DO. November 4, 2024. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2024/11/a-brotherhood-of-veterans-read-about-the-enduring-bond-between-a-t-still-md-do-and-his-civil-war-colonel/ (accessed October 27, 2026). Title and text as published and as featured on the osteopathic.org home page, archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on November 12, 2024; the article has since been revised to read “A.T. Still, DO.”
5. Wilkerson A. 2 historical artifacts reveal new details about A.T. Still, DO, and the early years of osteopathic medicine. The DO. January 16, 2025. Updated July 29, 2025. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2025/01/2-historical-artifacts-reveal-new-details-about-a-t-still-md-do-and-the-early-years-of-osteopathic-medicine/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
6. Fuller D. Did A.T. Still, DO, have an MD degree? The DO. March 1, 2026 (April 2026 issue). https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2026/03/did-a-t-still-do-have-an-md-degree/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
7. Wilkerson A. Getting a secondary MD degree as a DO—is it possible, and what could be the harm? The DO. April 13, 2026. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2026/04/getting-a-secondary-md-degree-as-a-do-is-it-possible-and-what-could-be-the-harm/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
8. American Osteopathic Association. Protecting osteopathic distinctiveness. https://osteopathic.org/about/advocacy/state-advocacy-initiatives/protecting-osteopathic-distinctiveness/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
9. 6 historical artifacts that tell a story about osteopathic medicine. The DO. April 2021. https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2021/04/6-historical-artifacts-that-tell-a-story-about-osteopathic-medicine (accessed October 26, 2026).