NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1969 SESSION

CHAPTER 612

HOUSE BILL 468

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE LICENSING OF OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS TO PRACTICE MEDICINE AND SURGERY AND TO ABOLISH THE BOARD OF OSTEOPATHIC EXAMINATION AND REGISTRATION.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  G.S. 90-9 is hereby rewritten to read as follows: "Section 90-9. Examination for license; scope; conditions and prerequisites. It shall be the duty of the Board of Medical Examiners to examine for license to practice medicine or surgery, or any of the branches thereof, every applicant who complies with the following provisions: He shall, before he is admitted to examination, satisfy the Board that he has an academic education equal to the entrance requirements of the University of North Carolina, or furnish a certificate from the superintendent of public instruction of the county that he has passed an examination upon his literary attainments to meet the requirements of entrance in the regular course of the State University. He shall exhibit a diploma or furnish satisfactory proof of graduation from a medical college approved by the American Medical Association at the time of his graduation or an osteopathic college approved by the American Osteopathic Association at the time of his graduation, which time of graduation shall have been on January 1, 1960 or subsequent thereto and which medical and osteopathic schools shall require an attendance of not less than four years and supply such facilities for clinical and scientific instruction as shall meet the approval of the Board; but the requirement of four years' attendance at a school shall not apply to those graduating prior to January the first, nineteen hundred.

"The examination shall cover the following branches of medical science: anatomy, embryology, histology, physiology, pathology, bacteriology, surgery, pediatrics, medical hygiene, chemistry, pharmacy, materia medica, therapeutics, obstetrics, gynecology, and the practice of medicine.

"If on such examination the applicant is found competent, the Board shall grant him a license authorizing him to practice medicine or surgery or any of the branches thereof.

"Applicants shall be examined by number only; names and other identifying information shall not appear on examination papers."

Sec. 2.  G.S. 90-10 is hereby rewritten to read as follows: "Section 90-10. Two examinations, preliminary and final, allowed. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Medical Examiners to examine any applicant for license to practice medicine on the subjects of anatomy, histology, physiology, bacteriology, embryology, pathology, medical hygiene, and chemistry, upon his furnishing satisfactory evidence from a medical school approved by the American Medical Association or an osteopathic school approved by the American Osteopathic Association, and supplying such facilities for anatomical and laboratory instruction as shall meet with the approval of the Board, that he has completed the course of study in the school upon the subjects mentioned. The Board shall set to the credit of such applicant upon its record books the grade made by him upon the examination, which shall stand to the credit of such applicant; and when he has subsequently completed the full course in medicine or osteopathic medicine and presents a diploma of graduation from a medical or osteopathic college approved as provided above, requiring a four years' course of study of medicine for graduation, and when he has completed the examination upon the further branches of medicine, to wit, pharmacy, materia medica, therapeutics, gynecology, pediatrics, practice of medicine and surgery, he shall have accounted to his credit the grade made upon the former examination, and if then upon such completed examination he be found competent, said Board shall grant him a license to practice medicine and surgery, and any of the branches thereof."

Sec. 3.  G.S. 90-13 is hereby rewritten to read as follows: "Section 90-13. When license without examination allowed. The Board of Medical Examiners shall in their discretion issue a license to any applicant to practice medicine and surgery in this State without examination if said applicant exhibits a diploma or satisfactory proof of graduation from a medical or osteopathic college, approved as provided in Section 90-9 and requiring an attendance of not less than four years, and a license issued to him to practice medicine and surgery by the Board of Medical Examiners of another state."

Sec. 4.  G.S. 90-14, as it appears in 1965 Replacement Volume 2C of the General Statutes, is hereby amended by striking the words "a license" which appear in line 13 thereof, and substituting therefor the words "an earned diploma or degree,".

Sec. 5.  G.S. 90-18 is hereby amended by striking the paragraph numbered (9) and by renumbering the subsequent paragraphs accordingly.

Sec. 6.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 7.  This Act shall be in full force and effect on and after July 1, 1969.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 23rd day of May, 1969.