to sortof return to OP's question, I think you should go the MD route, if only to keep all your options open. No matter what you hear, the MD and the DO are not (for better or for worse) seen as completely identical. If you decide eventually to go into any kind of specialty care, you will meet with considerably greater success holding an MD degree. Can it be done with a DO? Sure. Are there as many opportunities? Absolutely not.
the short answer? DO = MD. end of story.
To borrow from one of my previous posts on this topic, however, there are a number of actual difference in the day-to-day practice of medicine between MDs and DOs.
long (real, in my opinion) answer:
Some differences in approach to patient care- with DOs using more physical manipulation (OMT) and musculoskeletal therapy techniques. Personally, and this is just one person's opinion, I'm a little skeptical of the efficacy of some of these therapies. One example that comes to mind are the "craniosacral" therapies that are intended to restore some kind of nonvascular cerebral rhythms. Similarly, the AOA (governing body of osteopathic medicine) approves of chelation therapy despite little proof of efficacy.
Nevertheless, such differences are relatively few and far between and in no way compromise the clinical abilty of most osteopathic physicians. However, borrowing from an excellent article at quackwatch.org:
"The admission standards and educational quality are a bit lower at osteopathic schools than they are at medical schools. I say this because the required and average grade-point averages (GPAs) and the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores of students entering osteopathic schools are lower than those of entering medical students [4,5] -- and the average number of full-time faculty members is nearly ten times as high at medical schools (714 vs. 73 in 1994) [5]. In addition, osteopathic schools generate relatively little research, and some have difficulty in attracting enough patients to provide the depth of experience available at medical schools [6]. However, as with medical graduates, the quality of individual graduates depends on how bright they are, how hard they work, and what training they get after graduation. Those who diligently apply themselves can emerge as competent."
[4]- Doxey TT, Phillips RB. Comparison of entrance requirements for health care professions. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 20:86-91, 1997.
[5]- Ross-Lee B, Wood DL. Osteopathic medical education. In Sirica CM, editor. Osteopathic Medicine, Past, Present and Future. New York, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, 1996, page 95.
Finally, I'd like to address the frustrating claims sometimes made by pre-osteopathic students that allopathic medicine is less patient centered and somehow misses the forest for the trees. While it is true that osteopathic medicine stresses whole body care, allopathic medicine is no different in its approach- a patient (viewed by ANY medical tradition) is substantially more than the sum of his or her parts. Any good medical school teaches this concept and any decent clinician understands its central role in medicine.
