About DOs getting an MD G. surgery spot

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Hi, I read in Iserson's Getting Into A Residency that "it is virtually impossible for an osteopathic student to obtain an allopathic general surgery residency". Is this indeed true? I also read that there are only 77 or 78 osteopathic general surgery spots. Does this mean that out of the 2700 osteopathic students each year, that only around 80 will go into General surgery and thus it's fellowships?
Thanks

I have the fifth edition, and I could'nt find the quote you are referring to. It does say that, "Categorical general surgery residency postions...have become relatively difficult to obtain."

This information seems hopelessly out of date. Based on what I have been reading, general surgery is no longer highly competitive (except, of course, at top programs). In fact, its popularity seems to be dropping sharply.

Originally posted by maxim728:
Hi, I read in Iserson's Getting Into A Residency that "it is virtually impossible for an osteopathic student to obtain an allopathic general surgery residency". Is this indeed true? I also read that there are only 77 or 78 osteopathic general surgery spots. Does this mean that out of the 2700 osteopathic students each year, that only around 80 will go into General surgery and thus it's fellowships?

I think it's garbage. There were DOs in the general surgery program at my medical school. I would say that the term "virtually impossible" is a bit melodramatic.

Only 1,316 DOs went through the NRMP for residency positions. I'm sure not all of them were applying for General Surgery spots. Last year, ERAS listed the numbers and types of applicants that applied to each specialty. Those tables are not longer on their website. I think General Surgery had just over 100 DO applicants in the 2001 match. I'm sure some of the GS residents out there have the numbers. If you are interested in GS, you should definitely apply, there are great opportunities now to land a spot in a good program.

I agree with Stink. We had 12 match surgery at my school this May--9 into AOA programs and 3 into ACGME ones.

Actually, the book says the same thing about several other specialties. This is the quote from the fifth edition (ok, a have time on my hands):

"....you must recognize that, for whatever reason, ACGME-approved training in some specialties is almost completely off-limits to Osteopaths. Chief among these are Diagnostic Radiology, General Surgery, and various surgical specialties, such as Colon and Rectal Surgery, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, Thoracic Surgery, and Urology."

As other posters have already pointed out, this is now almost completely incorrect.

I just graduated from NYCOM....we had 5 match into allopathic gen surge programs-4 cat(of which I was one ), 1 prelim....we also had 1 allopathic GU, 1 allopathic Optho....not to mention 3 allo radiology, 4 allo ER....
The info you have is out of date. Now is the best time to apply to allopathic programs. The number of applicants is down, so they are looking for strong applicants period!
Work your butt off and you will match in the field you want. If I can help some more, send me a PM.....Good Luck <img border="0" alt="[Clappy]" title="" src="graemlins/clappy.gif" />

I had an attending DO orthopedic surgeon along with a few of his residents tell me that it is almost impossible for a DO to match into an MD ortho program. Can anyone confirm or deny this? In my mind I was wondering if they were exagerating the situation a bit.

Iserson's book has been out of date and frankly, he is a bit biased against DOs and IMGs, IMHO.

There is some resistance out there against DOs in allopathic programs, but then I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. The popularity of general surgery has decreased and I would imagine that a well qualified DO candidate would be favourably received at most allopathic programs.

As for Ortho, the difficulty still remains as Ortho remains pretty competitive.

hi, thanks all for the quick replies. yes dr. sardonicus, that is the quote, from the 5th edition, page 354, on the bottom. It seems weird because that book was published in 2000. Ok, thanks again everybody.

I'm a MD student and the attending rounding with us very happily stated to us that there are no DO doctors in the dept of surgery here. He also stated that all residents here were trained at US allopathic schools. It's scary to think that there are doctors out there that are this insecure.

i'm sure your attending must also have said things like "i'm very happily stated to you that there are no minority patients nor women in the dept of surgery here."

your attending still possesses the old school mentality of a surgeon. kinda sad, but if that's the only way he can boost up his ego, go ahead, be ignorant all he wants. <img border="0" alt="[Pissy]" title="" src="graemlins/pissy.gif" />

The Iserson book says published in 2000, but could have been written in 1999 and just published at the very beginning of 2000. And interest in residencies changes very very quickly. For example, under Anesthesia in the Iserson book, it lists one star, meaning that it is very easy to get in. Now everyone knows that Anesthesia is getting competitive, and just over the past two years, the number of AMGs entering anesthesia jumped from I think around 46% to nearly 75%. That's huge!

This is very interesting to learn, considering Dr. Iserson is speaking at my school, KCOM, this weekend. If he is biased toward D.O.s, then why would he schedule to speak to us about obtaining residency? Surely he is not going to tell us that we have no chance because we are Osteopathic students.

Originally posted by John DO
This is very interesting to learn, considering Dr. Iserson is speaking at my school, KCOM, this weekend. If he is biased toward D.O.s, then why would he schedule to speak to us about obtaining residency? Surely he is not going to tell us that we have no chance because we are Osteopathic students.

Hey, I'd love to know what he says. Post a synopsis of his views toward D.O. students...

Yea, I'd love to know as well.