No I am not a troll. I did some digging on the osteopathic.org website and I found this...
"However, current eligibility rules will still be in effect until we begin the transition in July 2015 and likely for a while after that date. MDs will not be able to enter osteopathic-focused training programs until standards for these programs have been developed, and that individual program has become ACGME-accredited. Accreditation will occur on a program-by-program basis. Since 2015 is the beginning of the five-year transition period,
it may take a year or longer after that date for the first osteopathic-focused ACGME programs to be able to admit MDs."
This paragraph is located on the very bottom of this link...
http://www.osteopathic.org/inside-aoa/single-gme-accreditation-system/Pages/faq-timeline.aspx
The reason I am worried is that, when Caribbean students start doing electives their fourth year, and if they choose to do electives at D.O residencies, they have an equal chance of landing that spot just like anybody else. Now there is wayyyy more competition for D.O's like myself to deal with.
Are there benefits to the merger for D.O's..... Yes..... but what will happen eventually, is there will be U.S medical school graduates, D.O AND M.D, that wont find a residency spot..... that's my fear...
First off, again, its not going to affect you, way too soon to even think that. Programs haven't said what's required yet, so its unlikely any IMGs will be able to complete the requirements come next match.
Second, your premise implies that AOA programs would put DO and Carib IMG students on equal footing. They won't. What makes you even suppose that? They aren't even viewed that way now. Programs that used to only take IMGs went out of their way to become dual-accredited to attract DOs. You really think when given the option of a DO or a IMG, formerly AOA programs would prefer the IMG? I don't think so.
Yea I am not arguing about fairness here.
I am talking about the fact that this merger hurts DOs more than it helps.
I really think this is debatable. Not merging would have some pretty big consequences for DOs also. Merging also has some other inherent benefits. Is it all win? No. Is it all lose? I don't think so, but I guess we'll see in 5 years.
If U.S medical schools are worried about their own students not matching, couldn't they have just blocked the Caribbean students completely??? Wouldn't that be much easier than this whole merger thing....
This would never happen. As of right now, 6000 residency spots go to IMGs (and I believe half of those go to US IMGs mostly from the Carib). Do you really think it's in the best interest of residency programs to kick out a huge population of applicants?
Aaand why would more DOs be applying to ACGME residencies?
You do understand that this merger doesnt increase the available positions to DOs by a single spot right?
And there still has been no mention of a single match.
...Except the combined match is thus far a baseless prediction that SDN just assumes will happen.
There has still been no official mention of this.
People have talked about it. No one wants to say anything official, because a timeline isn't there yet, but there has been mention of a single match. Its not part of the merger, because the match is run by a 3rd party organization (i.e. not the ACGME or AOA).
That said, once contracts are up and every program is ACGME accredited (and in turn every type of applicant would be able to apply to every type of program), there is 0 reason to have 2 matches. Not only would it be more costly for everyone involved (students and programs), but it would also be more work.
Before DOs used ERAS for the application, there was a big push to use the same standardized app process even with 2 matches, and the AOA quickly set that up. There's no way that if everything goes the way its laid out, that there will still be 2 matches. At this point its just a matter of when.
Ok. The amount of applicants remains unchanged.
The number of positions for USMDs increases
The number of positions for IMGs increases.
The number of positions for DOs remains the same.
It doesnt matter how you swap around where DOs and MDs match to. There are still, the same number of applicants, and and increased number of positions.
Think of it like a game of musical chairs if that is easier for you.
If you add more chairs for the same amount of people it doesn't really matter where everyone else sits.
Unless you are a DO, where you don't get more chairs. You get more people playing the game.
You're missing the part where there will be 3000-4000 more US MD and DO graduates by the end of the merger than there are now. Sure, there are more seats all around for IMGs, but just because they can apply doesn't mean they will not suffer from the additional competition. You make it seem like they come out on top, when in reality they don't. If anything the people that come out on top are residency programs.
