MD DO to become anesthesiologist.

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Hello,
I want to become an anesthesiologist. I like medicine, but I do not wan't to be a typical "doctor" in this modern age/ climate because I am afraid I might hate my job like many doctors out their. I like what anesthesiologists do, and honestly when reading about it I felt like this suits me very well (first time I felt that feeling). However, is their a difference between MD and DO when on the pathway to become an anesthesiologist. Also how competitive is it to become said doctor.
Thank you
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And the cycle begins anew
 
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Yes, 'their' is a difference if you want to do academic medicine or if you chase prestige. Try to get into an MD school because it will probably be easier to match into a competitive academic anesthesiology residency but if you get into a DO school you will still be able to become an anesthesiologist provided you work hard in med school. If you don't care about doing academics or prestige then no, there is no difference.
 
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Dr. Retractor said:
If you don't care about doing academics or prestige then no, there is no difference.
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But doesn't it go beyond that? We often hear that a lot of residency programs (including some of the non-prestigious ones) don't look at DO applications. This reality could possibly prevent a DO from matching in a specific region.
 
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UPMC's anesthesia program has a number of DO faculty / attendings, as well as quite a few DO residents in the pipeline. So, academic anesthesia programs would appear to be within the reach of DOs.

This doesn't mean that every program will be. This doesn't mean that MDs might not find their way into some programs more easily than DOs. That doesn't mean that an MD is a sure thing for any program.

Whatever your degree, if you give it your best, you will find your place. If that place isn't where you'd hoped it would be, it may not be your degree that made the difference.
 
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BioTic said:
Hello,
I want to become an anesthesiologist. I like medicine, but I do not wan't to be a typical "doctor" in this modern age/ climate because I am afraid I might hate my job like many doctors out their. I like what anesthesiologists do, and honestly when reading about it I felt like this suits me very well (first time I felt that feeling). However, is their a difference between MD and DO when on the pathway to become an anesthesiologist. Also how competitive is it to become said doctor.
Thank you
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Learn proper grammar and focus on getting an acceptance first.
 
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@cliquesh could tell you all about it.

Basically, you can get into anesthesia, but prepare to be more geographically limited for a given score profile.
 
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I don't know what the numbers are like nationwide, but in the greater NYC area, there is a huge DO representation in anesthesia. I didn't even notice this until I was applying to med school and asking for advice from doctors I work with, and discovered that a large percentage of anesthesiologists I know are DOs. It seems like many of them come from NYCOM and train at Stony Brook and North Shore-LIJ. I have also noticed that in south Jersey (Rowan SOM territory), DOs seem to represented in every specialty; I worked with an ENT plastic surgeon there who had a bunch of residents from Rowan (then UMDNJ-SOM) and the anesthesiologists working with him were also DOs. I'm sure it varies a lot by geographic region and this is only my experience working with ~100 anesthesiologists, not based upon any actual numerical analysis.
 
I keep telling you all. Got to make that popup window before posting a threat that asks with giant script, "IS THIS THREAT ABOUT MD VS DO?" YES/NO. If YES, link to a sticky.
 
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Gas is going down in competitiveness. Academic gas is very attainable for DOs. I am pretty sure a DO matched at MGH last year. Use the search function.
 
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DOs have been trained at Hopkins, Yale, etc. You have to perform well and you will be fine
 
Promethean said:
UPMC's anesthesia program has a number of DO faculty / attendings, as well as quite a few DO residents in the pipeline. So, academic anesthesia programs would appear to be within the reach of DOs.

This doesn't mean that every program will be. This doesn't mean that MDs might not find their way into some programs more easily than DOs. That doesn't mean that an MD is a sure thing for any program.

Whatever your degree, if you give it your best, you will find your place. If that place isn't where you'd hoped it would be, it may not be your degree that made the difference.
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Gonna ditto this because I don't think it can be stated any better. I have a number of friends who as DOs have matched into some prestigious anesthesia programs. It won't be your institution that prevents you from getting what you want.
 
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Psai said:
I don't remember seeing a do on their list
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I'm not 100% sure, it might have been Hopkins. I just remember seeing it on a match list that was on this site last spring. Other than that I haven't really looked for it specifically. Bottom line is that gas isn't difficult for DOs even at some of the top programs. Hence probably why a decent amount shoot for it
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
I'm not 100% sure, it might have been Hopkins. I just remember seeing it on a match list that was on this site last spring. Other than that I haven't really looked for it specifically. Bottom line is that gas isn't difficult for DOs even at some of the top programs. Hence probably why a decent amount shoot for it
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I have no doubt that those guys were superstars. It is very competitive to get into top programs and those applicants could have done anything
 
Can there be an automatic ban for creators of MD vs DO threads?

"I wanna be a doctor. But I can't read"
 
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Let me rephrase. You'll NEVER be an anaesthesiologist with a DO degree. Or even MD. You have to go MD/PhD for this. Duh.
 
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Law2Doc said:
That it has happened doesn't really mean it "isn't difficult".
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Oh I totally agree, I was mostly pointing out the fact that a DO with a great app won't see the same sort of bias in gas as they would in other fields, such as surgical specialties. I probably should have rephrased the "not difficult" part. Top programs are difficult for everyone, they are top for a reason.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Oh I totally agree, I was mostly pointing out the fact that a DO with a great app won't see the same sort of bias in gas as they would in other fields, such as surgical specialties. I probably should have rephrased the "not difficult" part. Top programs are difficult for everyone, they are top for a reason.
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I don't think this is true either. I only saw DOs at 2 of the places I interviewed at and there were 2 at one, 1 at the other.
 
Psai said:
I don't think this is true either. I only saw DOs at 2 of the places I interviewed at and there were 2 at one, 1 at the other.
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That's 3 more DOs than you will find in top ortho, nsg, and ENT programs combined... I am also just going off of what I've been told by the group of MD anesthesiologist I work with.
 
I'm a DO. I had a 250+ on step 1. I applied to 60ish programs and got 40 something invites. I interviewed at some decent places like Washu, upmc, upenn, and mayo. I matched my second choice. I probably would have gotten more and "better" interviews as an MD, but it wouldn't have mattered too much in my particular case. If you score around average (220 to 230) and apply to 40ish programs, you'll likely match at a decent university program as a DO.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
That's 3 more DOs than you will find in top ortho, nsg, and ENT programs combined... I am also just going off of what I've been told by the group of MD anesthesiologist I work with.
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Only 1 was at a top program

250 is roughly top 15%. That's unattainable for most people
 
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I think I may have just gotten roasted by future doctors. Im glad I can entrust my children to this upcoming generation. Thanks for the help for those who answered my questions, and not my ideology. It really helped, especially the DO part. Thanks again.
 
cliquesh said:
I'm a DO. I had a 250+ on step 1. I applied to 60ish programs and got 40 something invites. I interviewed at some decent places like Washu, upmc, upenn, and mayo. I matched my second choice. I probably would have gotten more and "better" interviews as an MD, but it wouldn't have mattered too much in my particular case. If you score around average (220 to 230) and apply to 40ish programs, you'll likely match at a decent university program as a DO.
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I think a lot of this depends on geography and what part of the country you want to train in. I'm a DO with a 260, top 1% of class, other graduate degrees and previous medical experience. I applied to 30 and only got 7 interviews and only one was a top 20 program. Given I was shooting for a competitive coast. But to say there is little bias between DO and MD in anesthesia even in this year's match is incorrect.


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BioTic said:
I think I may have just gotten roasted by future doctors. Im glad I can entrust my children to this upcoming generation. Thanks for the help for those who answered my questions, and not my ideology. It really helped, especially the DO part. Thanks again.
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Oh hush.
 
KashN said:
I think a lot of this depends on geography and what part of the country you want to train in. I'm a DO with a 260, top 1% of class, other graduate degrees and previous medical experience. I applied to 30 and only got 7 interviews and only one was a top 20 program. Given I was shooting for a competitive coast. But to say there is little bias between DO and MD in anesthesia even in this year's match is incorrect.


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Click to expand...

I agree. Being a DO isnt all sunshine and unicorns. But it isn't the end of the world either. I assume you applied mostly to west coast programs? You wouldve done well on the east coast or Midwest.
 
cliquesh said:
I agree. Being a DO isnt all sunshine and unicorns. But it isn't the end of the world either. I assume you applied mostly to west coast programs? You wouldve done well on the east coast or Midwest.
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Doubt it. Many top programs on the east coast don't even interview dos. The only ones that I can think of offhand are hopkins and penn
 
cliquesh said:
I agree. Being a DO isnt all sunshine and unicorns. But it isn't the end of the world either. I assume you applied mostly to west coast programs? You wouldve done well on the east coast or Midwest.
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Yes I applied mostly west coast. I agree that Midwest seems to more open for DOs and matching anesthesia is completely doable even with avg stats as long as you don't limit yourself by prestige or geography. There seems to be a big discrepancy between the top end and the low end programs, which leads people to believe that anesthesia is not competitive. I just wanted to share my experience so others don't think matching at top anesthesia programs is easy and that it IS all sunshine and unicorns out here.


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