Nova DPM to DO bridge program

Just curious...what would be the benefit of this bridge for a podiatrist? It's 3 yrs of DO school followed by a one year internship.

From their website: "After completing the requirements for the D.O. degree and a one-year osteopathic medical internship, the educational requirements will have been met for eligibility to obtain a license to practice osteopathic medicine in states requiring one year of graduate medical education. The program is designed for doctors of podiatric medicine who wish to obtain full medical licenses (i.e., osteopathic medicine) to provide added value to podiatric practice."

For those of you who don't know, pods do 4 yrs of podiatry school and then a 3 year surgical residency.

How many states allow a DO to practice with a one year internship? Are you limited by insurance requirements?

The only reasons I can think this might make sense is to be able to work in an underserved/rural area and have a greater scope of practice? Or, if for some reason a pod cannot perform surgery anymore, they can be a FP?

I don't get it...someone please enlighten me.

Originally Posted by flyhi

Just curious...what would be the benefit of this bridge for a podiatrist? It's 3 yrs of DO school followed by a one year internship.

From their website: "After completing the requirements for the D.O. degree and a one-year osteopathic medical internship, the educational requirements will have been met for eligibility to obtain a license to practice osteopathic medicine in states requiring one year of graduate medical education. The program is designed for doctors of podiatric medicine who wish to obtain full medical licenses (i.e., osteopathic medicine) to provide added value to podiatric practice."

For those of you who don't know, pods do 4 yrs of podiatry school and then a 3 year surgical residency.

How many states allow a DO to practice with a one year internship? Are you limited by insurance requirements?

The only reasons I can think this might make sense is to be able to work in an underserved/rural area and have a greater scope of practice? Or, if for some reason a pod cannot perform surgery anymore, they can be a FP?

I don't get it...someone please enlighten me.

I have heard, but don't know as a fact, that graduates of that program are not qualified to enter the match, although I don't know why they wouldn't be. More likely, DPM's who want to become DO's and quit podiatry just aren't the target demographic of the program.

Originally Posted by flyhi

Just curious...what would be the benefit of this bridge for a podiatrist? It's 3 yrs of DO school followed by a one year internship.

From their website: "After completing the requirements for the D.O. degree and a one-year osteopathic medical internship, the educational requirements will have been met for eligibility to obtain a license to practice osteopathic medicine in states requiring one year of graduate medical education. The program is designed for doctors of podiatric medicine who wish to obtain full medical licenses (i.e., osteopathic medicine) to provide added value to podiatric practice."

For those of you who don't know, pods do 4 yrs of podiatry school and then a 3 year surgical residency.

How many states allow a DO to practice with a one year internship? Are you limited by insurance requirements?

The only reasons I can think this might make sense is to be able to work in an underserved/rural area and have a greater scope of practice? Or, if for some reason a pod cannot perform surgery anymore, they can be a FP?

I don't get it...someone please enlighten me.

Depends on if you will be practicing as a podiatrist or as an osteopathic physician. If you intend on practicing as a physician, then you will need to meet the state's requirement for an unrestricted license to practice medicine. Most state require at least 1 year of ACGME or AOA accredited residency, some require 2 or more. Some states require that PGY1 year be AOA-approved (either through an AOA residency/internship or via Resolution 42 of an ACGME PGY1 year)

If you meet the bare minimum requirement for licensure, but elect not to do a residency, you will not be board eligible. You will be a general practitioner, NOT a family medicine doctor, NOT an internal medicine doctor, NOT a pediatrician, NOT any of the recognized specialty, just a general practitioner. Without being residency trained, and not being board eligible/certified, you will have a hard time getting credentialed by insurance companies or getting hospital priviledges (as an osteopathic physician). Your malpractice insurance premiums might be higher since you will not be board certified/eligible.

As a DPM, you may have completed podiatry school and a surgical residency (in podiatry) - but none of that will count towards your post MEDICAL graduate training.

As for "greater scope of practice" - sure, if you meet the state licensure requirement for the practice of medicine (or osteopathic medicine). But remember, you are still held to the standard of care in the community, so if you just do the bare requirement to get licensure (and don't pursue further training) - you may not realize how dangerous your lack of knowledge/skills are to the public (ask any intern towards the end of their intern year if they are ready to practice independently). Just because your medical license is unrestricted doesn't mean that you should suddenly do craniotomies, or exploratory lapratomies, or ORIF of the femoral head ... yes, your "scope of practice" allows you to, but should you?

Edit: Group_Theory beat me to it.

Podiatrists have a pretty bad residency shortage going on and some of those who want to do surgery aren't able to get into a program, sometimes for years, even with good stats. Hence the appeal for a bridge program.

This should be a cautionary tale for current premeds to keep an eye on GME legislation and the projected residency shortage coming down the line for physicians.

Originally Posted by MRSAful Fate

Podiatrists have a pretty bad residency shortage going on and some of those who want to do surgery aren't able to get into a program, sometimes for years, even with good stats. Hence the appeal for a bridge program.

This should be a cautionary tale for current premeds to keep an eye on GME legislation and the projected residency shortage coming down the line for physicians.

It's actually not as bad as some make it sound. Those that don't pass boards first time, or have a really poor academic record may not get a residency. According to this past year's numbers, they are short 73 spots, I believe, 69 of those not having matched from previous years. There were spots that went unfilled last year in the scramble. In other words, the residency programs would rather have no one than what was available.

Thanks, Group Theory. I appreciate the info. I guess my question is still the same then... why is this an attractive bridge program for a podiatrist? Nova advertises that the student goes into a 1 yr internship. Does this mean that a residency is not possible? Or are they just trying to make it seem like an attractive (ie. shorter and less expensive) program than if a DPM decided to completely switch gears and become a DO? They say it is for a podiatrist to add value to their existing practice. I am still trying to figure out what the added value actually means.

What exactly is the difference between a GP and FP?

I would not want a shortcut, which is why I'm confused about this program.....I admittedly do not know the ins and outs of DO post graduate training (lots of acronyms, that I do know), but it seemed odd that you'd only do a 1 yr internship and no residency.

Is this just a revenue source for Nova with no real life applicability?

Think about it like this…if you're a podiatrist and a big chunk of your patient base is diabetic, wouldn't you like to be able to change their insulin dose etc. when it became necessary? Thereby saving them a trip to their FP?

I may be looking at it wrong, but those are the types of things I imagine this program is geared toward.