Meet the AOA’s 129th President, Robert G.G. Piccinini, DO, D.FACN

When the AOA’s 2025-2026 president, Robert G.G. Piccinini, DO, D. FACN, was 4 years old, he was at his family cottage with his father when his father badly cut his hand while working outside the house. The young Dr. Piccinini immediately ran to get the first aid kit. He bandaged up his dad’s hand and stopped the bleeding.

“It was then that I knew I wanted to help people and go into medicine,” Dr. Piccinini says.

I recently had the delight of interviewing Dr. Piccinini to help the profession learn about him as his presidential year begins. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Dr. Piccinini during various meetings throughout his year as president-elect, and I was excited to have a long talk with him—I thoroughly appreciated his time and vulnerability.

Dr. Piccinini will be the first psychiatrist to lead the AOA in the organization’s history. I know this next year is going to be great for our osteopathic profession. If you do happen to see our new fearless leader, don’t hesitate to say hi—he very much enjoys engaging with all members of the osteopathic profession.

In this edited Q&A, Dr. Piccinini shares his experiences portraying the osteopathic philosophy, what he plans to focus on during the 2025-26 presidential term and his advice for new DOs.

What are you most looking forward to for your AOA presidential term?

My ultimate goal for this year is for our members’ relationships with our organization to be stronger than they are now. If we can achieve this goal, I will be very pleased with my term.

What has been your favorite thing about your president-elect term this past year—the 150^th anniversary of osteopathic medicine?

It has been so rewarding to go around and meet so many different members who love our profession. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone and answering their questions. I even like answering the “gotcha” questions that stump me from time to time!

Do you have any physicians in your family whom you look up to?

I am a first-generation American and the first DO in my family. I do have a cousin in Canada who is a doctor.

When did you decide you wanted to get involved with the AOA, and how did you get started?

As I mentioned before, I am a first-generation osteopathic physician and first-generation American. My dad immigrated here from Italy, and while I was growing up, he was always involved in Italian heritage organizations. So, from the time I was young, I experienced what it was like to give back to my community. This was further enforced in medical school—I had a mentor at MSUCOM who told me, “I have opened doors for you, now go open doors for others.” These words have always stuck with me, and that is why I feel called to give back and serve with the AOA.

The AOA has always been a part of my medical journey. I started as a student member with my state association, then worked my way up the ranks from local to now national service. I also got involved with my specialty college and have been lucky to give back by serving with them.

How do you maintain the osteopathic philosophy in the field of psychiatry?

It’s important to remember that there’s more to osteopathic principles and practice than hands-on manipulations. Osteopathic philosophy plays a role in how I approach every patient. The body and mind are interrelated, and the mind is the control center—when the mind goes awry, so many other things go awry. I have a lot of patients that come to me with supposedly “unexplained” symptoms or conditions. When they present to me, I take an osteopathic approach and look at the whole person.

For example, I had a patient come in with what seemed to be extreme anxiety. She was seen in the emergency room and was discharged home with a diagnosis of panic attacks; she was then referred back to me, her psychiatrist. When this patient came back to me, I knew what was going on in her life, and I knew these symptoms were not typical for her. I told her to go back to the ER immediately and get rechecked, and she ended up having a four-vessel bypass.

Another example is a patient who was referred to me by their primary care physician for a dementia workup. They had some assessments done in the other office, but their symptoms were not consistent with dementia. This patient had different handwriting and their behavior was different. I referred them to another specialist who ordered imaging, and the patient ended up having a left parietal temporal tumor.

These two patients show us that we should be looking at the patient as a whole, rather than looking at their isolated symptoms. The way I tie in the osteopathic philosophy is by approaching every patient as a clean slate.

How do you approach challenging or noncompliant patients in your practice?

Early on in my life, I went to military school. One of my early instructors told me, “Every person is afraid of something.” So, every emotion of anger, hostility or noncompliance is a component of fear. Knowing this, I sit back and try to approach the patient as they are, and try to figure out what they are afraid of—what fear is motivating them?

In addition, during our training, we are told to “cure that disease,” “fix that dysfunction” or “operate on that problem.” In the case of mental illness, a lot of the time, we do not have definite cures or fixes. So, my goal is not to “cure” schizophrenia, but to help contain the disease and help the patient be as functional as they can. This means if they have a setback and miss a medication dose, they are more uncomfortable than they could be, but they are not necessarily back in a severe disease state.

When you get a rare few minutes of free time to yourself, what do you like to do?

When I am traveling for meetings, I really enjoy photography. Taking pictures in new places is something I find interesting. When I am not traveling, I enjoy smoking meat and cooking in general.

What is one goofy or funny thing that people may not know about you yet?

Something people may not know about me is that I have a very dry sense of humor, and I will often try to find humor in everything.

What advice would you give to the new generation of DOs—specifically, the DO Class of 2025?

Something that you will learn quickly throughout residency is how to build resilience of your ego. You are not going to be right every time, and patients may say some hurtful things. Don’t let that take away from all of your learning and experiences. On the contrary, try to avoid letting patients put you on a pedestal. If they build you up, it makes it much farther to fall. Be kind to yourself. Even though medicine can sometimes have thorns, enjoy the roses at the top. Accept the bad times and learn from them, but don’t dwell on them.

Lastly, don’t forget your college, and don’t forget the osteopathic profession and the AOA. The AOA is truly the only one who will go to bat and fight for you. There have been instances where the AOA has stood up for me when professionally no one else would. Our profession has been going strong for 150 years, and with your help, we can go strong for another 150 years plus.

Related reading:

Leaders of the American Osteopathic College of Radiology and Louisiana Osteopathic Medical Association receive the 2025 Bob E. Jones, CAE, award

Advancing osteopathic medicine: Leadership, mentorship & legislative wins