DO and specialize in nephrology or anesthesia? Is it harder to do as DO

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No, DOs can only specialize in OMM and FM-OMM. Nephrology is the most competitive fellowship for IM graduates. DOs have absolutely no chance to stand out among the hundreds of FMGs that apply to it.


Yes, DOs can do it because anyone can do either.
 
serenade said:
No, DOs can only specialize in OMM and FM-OMM. Nephrology is the most competitive fellowship for IM graduates. DOs have absolutely no chance to stand out among the hundreds of FMGs that apply to it.


Yes, DOs can do it because anyone can do either.
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Interesting- this is more of the answer I've heard and why it seems the answer is ambiguous. a sad: "Yes but no" type of answer
 
MDRenal said:
Interesting- this is more of the answer I've heard and why it seems the answer is ambiguous. a sad: "Yes but no" type of answer
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he is messing with you...

Who has given you ambiguous answers? A buddy who knows a guy who's uncle went to med school in 1970?

For real... With very, very minimal legwork you can find the answer to this question. The answer is yes, DOs can legally specialize in any medical practice.
 
Awesome Sauceome said:
he is messing with you...

Who has given you ambiguous answers? A buddy who knows a guy who's uncle went to med school in 1970?

For real... With very, very minimal legwork you can find the answer to this question. The answer is yes, DOs can legally specialize in any medical practice.
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- answers from my primary who is a DO and my sports medicine MD - they said yes, but.....long way of saying do the MD route if that's what you would like to do. I have googled nephrologist ---all my personal nephrologist are MD's- even through my moves into different states...always referred to nephrologist who are MDs and never DO.
 
Guess a better question is why it is rare to find DO specialized in those fields and what makes it "harder" for a DO to specialize that route?
 
Nephro and anesthesia are both very doable as a DO and very DO friendly specialties. Hell, I worked with a DO nephro guy at my old hospital, he was one of the only DOs on staff.
 
Honestly, very few want to be a nephrologist after completing IM. It's by far the most uncompetitive fellowship there is in IM.


And there are tons of Anes matchs.
 
serenade said:
Honestly, very few want to be a nephrologist after completing IM. It's by far the most uncompetitive fellowship there is in IM.


And there are tons of Anes matchs.
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I believe that distinction goes to ID, good sir/ma'am.
 
MDRenal said:
Guess a better question is why it is rare to find DO specialized in those fields and what makes it "harder" for a DO to specialize that route?
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Well from a numbers perspective DOs currently make up something like 9% of doctors I think (I could be wrong, but it's a small percentage). With more schools and more graduates, numbers are increasing to something like 30%, but the vast majority of doctors overall are MDs.

Plus, in certain areas DOs make up a smaller percentage of that 9% of doctors. So I'm not sure where you live, but that could play a factor in to it.

Lastly, as far as nephrology specifically goes, I don't know that many students interested in it (both MD and DO), so again, that'll make up an even smaller percentage of DOs being nephrology.

Regardless, DOs practice every specialty that MDs practice.
 
AMEHigh said:
Well from a numbers perspective DOs currently make up something like 9% of doctors I think (I could be wrong, but it's a small percentage). With more schools and more graduates, numbers are increasing to something like 30%, but the vast majority of doctors overall are MDs.

Plus, in certain areas DOs make up a smaller percentage of that 9% of doctors. So I'm not sure where you live, but that could play a factor in to it.

Lastly, as far as nephrology specifically goes, I don't know that many students interested in it (both MD and DO), so again, that'll make up an even smaller percentage of DOs being nephrology.

Regardless, DOs practice every specialty that MDs practice.
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I work in an OR. Half of our anesthesiologists are DO. Half are MD. As far as surgeons go... it's currently probably 60% MD and 40% DO. I'm also seeing more DO surgical residents doing rotations and working alongside MD attendings.

DO'S can become anything they want to be. It all depends how hard you want to work.
 
Yea the ratio is changing for sure. If you look at the older docs, a ton more specialists are MDs.

But the new generation is something like 60/40 or 70/30 like others have suggested. DOs are definitely having an easier time in a lot of fields. Again the best way to see this is to look at match lists at some schools. Check out CCOM, PCOM, KCUMB, VCOM, just for a couple starters.
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Awesome Sauceome said:
Yea the ratio is changing for sure. If you look at the older docs, a ton more specialists are MDs.

But the new generation is something like 60/40 or 70/30 like others have suggested. DOs are definitely having an easier time in a lot of fields. Again the best way to see this is to look at match lists at some schools. Check out CCOM, PCOM, KCUMB, VCOM, just for a couple starters.
Sent from my RM-917_nam_usa_100 using Tapatalk
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Will do
 
In 2011, 15 of the 23 DOs who applied to acgme nephrology matched.
 
MDRenal said:
- answers from my primary who is a DO and my sports medicine MD - they said yes, but.....long way of saying do the MD route if that's what you would like to do. I have googled nephrologist ---all my personal nephrologist are MD's- even through my moves into different states...always referred to nephrologist who are MDs and never DO.
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There aren't less proportionally. As people have mentioned, DOs make up <10% of all practicing physicians in the US. So, unless you've seen/worked with 10 gas and 10 nephro docs (and that's assuming its a randomized sample from those fields, which it likely is not) and none were DOs, then you can't really make any estimation on DOs being underrepresented in those fields.

People are throwing around the close to 30% number, but that's DOs becoming close to 30% of US med school grads, it doesn't count the huge amount (something like 1/4 of all practicing physicians in the US) foreign grads that add to it and make up the physician population in the US.

Gas and nephro are very doable as a DO, and that is only becoming more and more true.
 
Uhm, this seems silly. Of course DOs can specialize in either. I am currently shadowing a DO who is an anesthesiologist. As a matter of fact, there are about 30 docs there, and I think that there are a total of about 8 DO anesthesiologists there.

You can choose an allopathic residency or an osteopathic residency when you choose to specialize. Both are fine.

Don't listen to what people say if it sounds stupid to begin with
 
At the hospital I work at, the nephrologist we consult most frequently in the ED is a DO... and he is awesome..
Dont think it matters DO/MD, nephrology is a tough specialty regardless.
 
jsx1 said:
At the hospital I work at, the nephrologist we consult most frequently in the ED is a DO... and he is awesome..
Dont think it matters DO/MD, nephrology is a tough specialty regardless.
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It's actually one of the least competitive IM subspecialities.
 
You may have to take USLME step 1. it's a bit harder to get residency mostly because
1. They are biased towards MD
2. DO students in general scores lower on USLME step 1 than MD students but I think that's because DO accepts students with lower GPA and MCAT - two factors that often correlate to step 1
 
moisne said:
You may have to take USLME step 1. it's a bit harder to get residency mostly because
1. They are biased towards MD
2. DO students in general scores lower on USLME step 1 than MD students but I think that's because DO accepts students with lower GPA and MCAT - two factors that often correlate to step 1
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There are AOA gas residencies as well as a few AOA Neph fellowships. Likewise a sizable amount of DO students do not take the USMLE and match ACGME residencies regardless.

But yah, most DO students will likely want to start taking the USMLE soon.

Regarding the lower scoring. It's ultimately more due to being taught more towards the COMLEX question types I imagine.
 
Don't get too excited when you hear a specialty is "DO friendly". Anesthesiology is relatively DO friendly, but the specialty is suffering with militant CRNA's and serious reimbursement concerns. Radiology is now DO friendly as well, but the job market is poor and many graduates do 2 fellowships to find one.

Most of the time, "DO friendly" really just means "less competitive", and there is a reason certain specialties are becoming less competitive. Do not lose sight of this.
 
user3 said:
Don't get too excited when you hear a specialty is "DO friendly". Anesthesiology is relatively DO friendly, but the specialty is suffering with militant CRNA's and serious reimbursement concerns. Radiology is now DO friendly as well, but the job market is poor and many graduates do 2 fellowships to find one.

Most of the time, "DO friendly" really just means "less competitive", and there is a reason certain specialties are becoming less competitive.
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What is left, though? Surgery subspecialties, derm, and rad/onc. That's not much to choose from. I'd personally never do surgery or derm. I would do rad/onc.
 
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