I totally agree with
@Goro and I, honestly, believe this is a very important point. The students that are applying to AOA surgical subspeciality programs are the best in their classes (good grades, high class rank, high COMLEX score, research/leadership etc.). I suspect that the MD students applying for those "formerly AOA" spots are not the best in their classes and, despite what some of you are saying,
probably won't outshine the DO students.
I spoke with a friend at LECOM-Bradenton (who's gunning ortho, OMSIII) and he said that most DO surgical sub-specialty programs, firstly, don't even interview anyone that hasn't rotated with the program. I doubt many MD schools will quickly grant elective academic credit for rotating through the Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education programs of these hospitals that they have previously never had connections with. Secondly, he told me that most competitive specialties/programs have minimum COMLEX Step 1 score requirements to even rotate, let alone apply/interview. MD students that meet that percentile for the USMLE are probably competitive/safe for most ACGME programs.
He also gave me this specific example. Jersey City Medical Center's Ortho program (which he considers "undesirable" for competitive DO students because it's a brand new program that was created because a different hosting hospital shut down in New York, etc. etc.) has a
minimum COMLEX score requirement of 570 (~85percentile) for anyone that wants to do an elective at their site (and, therefore, apply, be competitive at, etc.). The average USMLE score for students that matched Ortho in 2014 was 245 (~ 76percentile). So, the minimum test score requirement for this relatively "undesirable" DO ortho program is already above the average for people that matched ACGME ortho. (Probably because of how few AOA ortho spots there are). A US MD student that scores 85th percentile on USMLE (i.e. 252) should not have
too hard of a time matching a traditional ACGME program. Keep in mind that more competitive AOA ortho programs (like in Ohio, Michigan) have COMLEX step1 score of 600 requirements.
He also said that the ACGME is requiring all PDs to programs that want an "osteopathic" recognition to be DOs. I doubt many of these DOs, that are clinical faculty at DO schools, have recruited DO students for years, will now magically be much more favorable to average MD students. Finally, at most competitive residency sites, PDs are part of an OPTI which are associated with DO schools.
Some OPTIs have a say in GME director selections at hospitals and do the paperwork for residency funding. PDs rely on OPTIs a lot for accreditation help and salary funding. Even during the merger, hospitals that are associated with older OPTIs are having an easier time transitioning. My friend said that the OPTIs will be pushing the PDs to keep recruiting DOs. Remember that, in the DO world, OPTIs are the ones that start residency programs and not hospitals by themselves. OPTIs have a vested interest in making sure DOs match or else it reflects poorly on their home schools.
My friend suspects that [for competitive residency programs] some programs will close and most will shrink and a few will take this as an opportunity to convert to full MD programs (again, this has a lot to do with OPTIs and how much power/control they have with PDs and GME departments which differs by region). One example is Riverside County Regional Medical Center's Ortho Program, which he suspects will probably be converted to a very competitive MD program. He also said that, interestingly, CCOM's Neurosurgery program in Illinois has already been interviewing MDs for their next batch and they haven't even fully transitioned yet. The programs that know they can't meet those requirements are already starting to look for other avenues or stopping to take new residents already. Remember that there are bags of $$$ behind some of these programs and no PD wants to see their program close on their watch and lose the $$$.
Also, there is something that many of you aren't considering that that is that the ACGME and the NRMP are 2 totally separate entities. Eventually, the AOA agrees that there will be one match but they decided to postpone the logistics of that for another day. According to the contract that was signed earlier, it is up to the programs (OPTIs, PDs, hospitals, etc.) (at least for now) to decide to use the NRMP or stick with the AOA matching service. So, to think that a Harvard MD can rank PCOM's Ortho program alongside MGH in 2017
might also not be true. However, my friend and I both agree that any program that goes through the proce$$ of converting to an ACGME program will probably choose the NRMP over the AOA simply to make sure the competitive DO (and, to some extent, probably MD) students rank them. Currently, the AOA match occurs before the NRMP match, which also complicates the ball game.
And, finally, if you compare match lists from 5 years ago and to lists from last year, DO students are matching in ACGME programs (even in highly competitive
specialties) at higher rates. Touro New York (a new "factory" school that a poster was bashing above) got a student in Wayne State for Rad-Onc and another to University of Texas Medical Branch for Ortho. LECOM-Bradenton matched an ACGME Urology program, etc.etc. The notion that DO schools have inferior standards of medical education is disingenuous. Sure, some probably do. But, have you heard of California Northstate? Bye.
