Buster,
I see that you are just beginning medical school. While I am only a year ahead of you, I think I might be able to elucidate some reasons why the COMLEX is not the exact equivalent of the USMLE beyond the fact that the COMLEX includes OMM. The national boards do test, for the most part, only factually based medicine. Inherent in many questions, however, such as those that concern treatment options for a specific case/patient, is the intent to test the student's understanding of the osteopathic philosophies of treatment. On this issue the allopaths and the osteopaths can differ significantly at times. This is especially the case when it comes to managing patients pharmacologically versus holistically. When you take pharmacology your second year you will undoubtedly see the difference in the application of theurapeutic tools used by DOs and MDs. At TCOM, we have MDs and DOs teaching us, however, many MDs will say in their lecture, after putting up a powerpoint of a board reveiw series question, something like "I would manage a patient in this manner, but for the COMLEX the appropriate answer would be this."Of course,when one enters the real world these philosophies are subject to change based on an individual's experience. While in medical school, however, if a student wants to do well, they are going to have to adopt the professors' way of thinking, at least until they graduate. I believe that is why the AOA, and the DO schools, firmly support a need for their own test.
