D.O.s and surgery..

[J1515]

That may be fine for you, but the notion that doctors should be content practicing any available type of medicine, just because it's medicine, is absurd. I can't even believe we're having this discussion.

I never said that. What I did say is that there ARE residency spots available when the time comes where too many DO schools open up and the MD schools increase their class size to the point where many DOs get squeezed out of the allopathic match. I'm not saying everyone should be content with a family practice residency. But if you want something else <more competitive> you will have to be better than the rest of the applicants. Not to mention DO schools traditionally focused on primary care specialties. If osteopathic specialties become much more competitive and we start seeing DO schools churning out more and more FPs, and you don't like FP, the answer is simple: go to an MD school.

It's great you matched into something you love and weren't forced to do any more family medicine than what was required. That doesn't mean everyone shares the same hatred for it that you do.

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[Gut Shot]

But if you want something else <more competitive> you will have to be better than the rest of the applicants.

Brilliant.

 

[J1515]

Brilliant.

Thank you. I was trying to match the brilliance of your insinuation that nobody could possibly be happy in FP so long as they are/were interested in another field. You hated it so everyone else must as well.

 

[medhacker]

Repeating this will not make it true. One can assemble a group of anecdotes to support any view of reality one wishes. If I had the time, I could wander through my med center and no doubt obtain plenty of anecdotes to the contrary.

I never said anecdotes demonstrate there is no discrimination of DOs in the MD match. What I did say was that the evidence we have that there is no generalized disadvantage for the DO in the MD match is as good or better than the evidence to suggest otherwise.

The fact remains that the 2007 allopathic match rates for allopaths and osteopaths were 94.8% and 68.8%, respectively. That is a significant gap. Earlier you commented on the caliber of osteopathic applicants in said match, which is a valid concern. It should be remembered, however, that to be in the match one has to land interviews. That 31.2% of DO applicants that did not match didn't just wander off the street and into ERAS. They were good enough to be considered, but for whatever reason did not make the cut. Hopefully they fared better in the scramble.

Let's hold it right there, for right there is where the nitty gritty of the argument resides. You said "They were good enough to be considered, but for whatever reason did not make the cut", the phrase "for whatever reason" being key. We do not know what those reasons are! to argue on favor of one side of the argument or the other on the basis of those percentages is logically irresponsible.

I'm sorry, I wish we were all assessed truly by our merits and not the names or degrees on our diplomas, but that's not how things are right now. To proclaim otherwise is naive.

Sorry, you have no truth to pin your claim on other than speculation.

 

[joco7788]

If you are a DO or an MD you can match into surgery. You can even go further and specialize into a particular field of surgery (do a Google search and I'm pretty sure you will find a DO in any field of your choosing). Yikes. . .DO's can specialize and aren't just relegated to the waste lands of South Dakota???

Anyways so to address the original posters question as well as anyone else considering osteopathic medicine and concerned they will hurt their chances of matching into a desirable residency: go to where you get in and where you think the right fit is for you, then worry about what specialty you want!