The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) is a non-profit organization that supports the 33 accredited U.S. colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) delivering instruction at 47 teaching locations in 31 states.

Six of the colleges are publicly controlled, 25 are private.

Osteopathic Medicine is a branch of the medical profession in the United States.

Osteopathic physicians (D.O.s) are equivalent to Doctors of Medicine (M.D.s) and are considered fully licensed physicians (medical doctors) to practice medicine and surgery in all 50 states and are recognized in 65 other countries, including all Canadian provinces.

Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner; either the initial training to become a physician (i.e., medical school and internship), or additional training thereafter (e.g., residency and fellowship).

A physician, medical practitioner, medical doctor, or simply doctor is a professional who practises medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining, or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.

Physicians may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients and methods of treatment—known as specialities—or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as general practice.

Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines (such as anatomy and physiology) underlying diseases and their treatment—the science of medicine—and also a decent competence in its applied practice—the art or craft of medicine.

or pupil is a learner or someone who attends an educational institution.

In Britain those attending university are termed "students".

In the United States, and more recently also in Britain, the term "student" is applied to both categories.

In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning, including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to university.

When speaking about learning outside an institution, "student" is also used to refer to someone who is learning a topic or who is "a student of" a certain topic or person.