ABSTRACT
Medical doctors generally control clinical work and the efforts of most other people who provide health care directly to patients. The status and prestige accorded to the physician is in recognition of the physician’s expertise concerning one of society’s most essential functions: the definition and treatment of health problems. The social importance of the medical function and the limited number of people with the training to perform as physicians are not the only criteria explaining their professional status. One of the most significant guiding principles of the American medical association had been its view of the physician as an independent practitioner, largely free of public control, who engages in private medical practice on a fee-for-service basis. Osteopaths are part of mainstream medicine, and they work as physicians with the added skill of training in spinal procedures. Power and influence among physicians derive from being in a position to direct or at least share in decision-making at the highest organizational levels.
