How many of you care about your doctor's MD?

[el_duderino]

I care more about where they did residency or fellowship, but not even a whole lot about that.

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[compstomper]

As long as they can cure what ails me, I don't care if they're medical doctors, osteopathic doctors, or witch doctors.

 

[bambam92]

I would only trust a US MD or DO grad with my health or my families…after all what is more important than ones health? And I know a kid who matriculated to Ross from my UG and lets just say he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. I recall him telling me that the school said, "just take the mcat, scores don't matter." WTF?!? Kind of killed my perception of IMG and carib.

 

[Dr. Jan Itor]

I'm not sure that the way those in the medical field or pre-meds pick their doctors is representative of how the general population picks their doctors. For instance, my PCM is a PA and my kids have a DO for their pediatrician, yet my grandparents won't see anyone who isn't an MD because "they are real doctors." Now, whether that MD is from Harvard or Mars, I'm not sure they care.

I'd steer clear of anyone with a handwritten sign in an alleyway, though.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm not sure that the way those in the medical field or pre-meds pick their doctors is representative of how the general population picks their doctors. For instance, my PCM is a PA and my kids have a DO for their pediatrician, yet my grandparents won't see anyone who isn't an MD because "they are real doctors." ....

To be fair, earlier on in your grandfathers life, DOs couldn't write prescriptions, and so sort of weren't real doctors. This equivalency is only about a generation old. And going to med school out of the states was somewhat more viable then than now.

 

[gyngyn]

That is insane! How did you find out? Did the patient tell you or did your alma mater call you to tell you? Did you perform the surgery or tell the patient to go away?

Edited: Oops; I see you answered the first two questions already.

The case went well and she became a great referral source.

 

[gyngyn]

Tell him the training (residency) matters a Lot more than the med school. You don't learn to be a doctor in med school. So if you are going to be picky, go for the guy who went to a middling med school but then top residency over the guy who went to a prestigious med school and a middling residency.

In medicine you are always only as good as the last place you've been. Your college really is meaningless once you are in med school and your med school is pretty meaningless once you are in residency. (which I think might give some insight as to why it would be hard, if not impossible, for most patients to actually figure out who the better trained doctors are).

I agree with you. Sadly for the "picky," the strengths and weaknesses of residencies vary so much by specialty that only those in the specialty know which training programs are best. I'll bet no one on this forum knows the best or worst programs in my specialty, yet just about every woman in your family has had, not just medical care but often surgery from someone in it.

 

[IlDestriero]

I look where my potential physicians trained and went to school. The information is available.
I will pass on the Caribbean guys. Sorry. I'm also biased against DOs for my care or my children's care. The starting point is not the same, nor is the end point, though both meet minimum requirements to practice medicine and have a medical license.
They would have to have a stellar reputation to change my opinion.

 

[CpnClwVie]

100% don't care. My city has a large teaching hospital and thus I just assume they are all competent since they work there

 

[GoPelicans]

I have seen doctors from all over the spectrum and had mostly positive experience regardless of where they went to school. EG I learned recently that my pediatrician, who I thought was the best doctor ever as a kid, went to Ross University. The only doctor I have had a bad experience with (due to his flippant atittude to what my family perceived as a serious problem) went to George Washington.

 

[Wasted Energy]

Back a few months ago I spent a few minutes looking up all my doctors from the past few years, just out of curiosity. Although I already knew that my primary care doc was a DO, I found out that my dermatologist was a DO and that and my ortho doc was a Caribbean grad.

I very seldom see a physician anyway, just because of how much easier it is to get in to see a PA.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

I will pass on the Caribbean guys. Sorry. I'm also biased against DOs for my care or my children's care. The starting point is not the same, nor is the end point, though both meet minimum requirements to practice medicine and have a medical license.

I'm a bit puzzled by this. In my 3 decades or so in neonatology, I've only heard of one family ever insisting that they be put under the care of a particular neonatologist based on this sort of thing. And boy did they ever get it wrong and regret it. But, I'm puzzled by the "end point" statement and I'm genuinely curious what you mean by it. If a DO/Caribbean grad gets a solid residency and/or fellowship in general peds or a specialty fellowship, why is the endpoint not the same? I have a bit of involvement in picking folks for these training positions and we can and do take DOs and international grads (less often, but sometimes) who meet what we believe to be solid standards. I am aware of only a small handful of pediatric residency programs that have the reputation for never taking them and have never heard of that in specialty training, although I'm sure it exists.

In any case, related to primary care, in larger cities, people can pick their pediatrician, and I do not believe as has been stated (not by you) that > 99.9% would pick an NP equally to a primary care doc (pediatrician). But little pediatric specialty care is that way, and for the most part, I see extremely little reason to believe that avoidance of DO or foreign trained docs is common or the correct choice as a standard practice.

 

[IlDestriero]

The end point I was referring to was after residency/fellowship but it was not clear that I was referring back to my first sentence. If all I need is a sports physical and the current vaccine schedule or when to get a colonoscopy, anyone would probably be fine.
I have seen some marginal Caribbean MDs and DOs over the years. (Though not personally outside of a visit to an urgent care while travelling.) I suspect they affected my opinions, right or wrong, they are what they are.
If my kid is in the PICU at Boston Children's and I find out the surgeon/intensivist/??? is a Caribbean grad or DO, they would pass muster, as they would have sufficient skills to to the job at that level evidenced by their employment there. Happy Joe the Pediatrician with a tiny PP group in town is not vetted the same way.
I have also seen a horrible arrogant douche pediatrician that had very good credentials, twice unfortunately. He did not know that I was a physician. I suspect he would have behaved differently if he did. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, he got the soft firing from the practice not long after. One of my friends is tight with the managing partner of the group. Everyone hated him and some of his pontification was suspect, though probably just bluster.

 

[ExpatmeStat]

I care more about where they did residency or fellowship, but not even a whole lot about that.

I definitely look for this. Its definitely subjective and based on my experience, but yup I definitely look at where someone has done their training. Probably not fair, but take that for what it is...

 

[darkjedi]

There would be no way for a patient to know what school you attended unless you told them.

As far as people in the know are concerned: MD=DO>>>>>Caribbean.


EDIT: Grammar.

It's actually super easy to look up where your doc graduated from. Strangely finding out where they went to residency is a little harder though...

 

[hmockingbird]

The area where I grew up has 3 large academic medical centers. I would go to a doctor at any of those hospitals and have had great treatment at all, so in my opinion if you work at one of these hospitals, that says a lot of good things about you. Don't have a preference MD or DO. I have never been anywhere where NPs and PAs work as PCPs (at most urgent care) but I would not pick one as a PCP. I have a lot of complex medical conditions, so I kind-of need someone who has more training even just for primary care (you need to be able to juggle all of my problems haha). I have had great experiences with NPs , I just think I need to see a doctor personally. I have liked the NPs I've seen over PAs, I think it is the nursing background.

 

[DermViser]

99.99% of patients really don't care and would be just as happy seeing an NP. If the person wears a white coat and can spend a solid 15 minutes with them, and is allowed to write scripts, they are often the "best doctor" they ever saw. That's why primary care is F'ed.

Medicine hasn't bothered to promote the fact that we are so intensively trained. To most of the public, med school is something like a One year vocational school where you learn to use a stethoscope, and the public never heard of residency. So WHERE you went to med school is pretty meaningless to most patients, because most don't really care IF you went to med school. The people on SDN and their families who are plugged into the world of healthcare and might know what is a good school or adequate training really make up less than a fraction of a percent of any patient base. So no, to your patients it won't matter.

Sad but true for physicians practicing primary care. Physicians can't win here.

I can imagine that credentials of medical school, residency, fellowship (gold star for going to an Ivy League institution at any one of these levels) comes more into play with something major i.e. coronary bypass surgery, etc.

 

[DermViser]

It's actually super easy to look up where your doc graduated from. Strangely finding out where they went to residency is a little harder though...

Not in Doximity: https://www.doximity.com/pub/benjamin-carson-md

 

[DermViser]

I look where my potential physicians trained and went to school. The information is available.
I will pass on the Caribbean guys. Sorry. I'm also biased against DOs for my care or my children's care. The starting point is not the same, nor is the end point, though both meet minimum requirements to practice medicine and have a medical license.
They would have to have a stellar reputation to change my opinion.

How are the starting points or end points not the same?

 

[DermViser]

In any case, related to primary care, in larger cities, people can pick their pediatrician, and I do not believe as has been stated (not by you) that > 99.9% would pick an NP equally to a primary care doc (pediatrician).

 

[RJGOP]

Not any more: Healthgrades, Vitals.com, Doximity all have that information.

Not to mention certain docs put that information on their websites.

 

[otterxavier]

What? That's a completely ridiculous and ignorant assumption. Not all people who go to the top 20's are aiming for ROAD specialties. There are a lot of students there who actually WANT to do primary care.

I'm aware of that, and I didn't say that all students who go to top-20 schools prefer ROAD specialties to primary care. What I did say was that someone who both went to a school that has a stronger focus on producing good researchers than good PCPs, and is only entering primary care as plan Z because plans A through Y fell through, may not be all that desirable as a PCP even if they have a fantastic academic pedigree.

 

[Lawpy]

What's important is that an actual doctor is the one prescribing medications (whether it's MD/DO and preferably US-trained). Way too many NPs and PAs are already infecting primary care with their "wanna-be doctor" mentality... and it's apparently getting far worse over time. It's frustrating, and apparently anyone can play doctor by dancing around with a white coat and stethoscope.

/rant