DO and Teaching

[Kingstonhopeful]

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Hey everyone,
What are the prospects for pursing teaching and research, alongside clinical practice as a DO in the USA? Is it possible to do both at an allopathic MD school? What about doing both in Canada?

Thanks

 

[J1515]

Hey everyone,
What are the prospects for pursing teaching and research, alongside clinical practice as a DO in the USA? Is it possible to do both at an allopathic MD school? What about doing both in Canada?

Thanks

Your best bet is to ask MD/PhDs or DO/PhDs for their experiences. All you'll get here is "I've heard it's harder for DOs to go into academia/research."

 

[WNT Signaling]

Hey everyone,
What are the prospects for pursing teaching and research, alongside clinical practice as a DO in the USA? Is it possible to do both at an allopathic MD school? What about doing both in Canada?

Thanks

The only physician-scientist residency that is AOA credit is a neurology program that is dual ACGME and AOA accredited http://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residencyhttp://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residency
http://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residency (this list isn't the end-all; there are definitely more)

Here's the skinny: academic medicine, and specifically basic research oriented academic medicine, isn't as popular as you might think. It's possible to be trained at an allopathic institution and to ultimately open a lab at an allopathic school. How often does it happen? Probably not that often, but then again, osteopathic medicine is not geared to nor does it seem to care about basic research. If you want to go into research, you need to be proactive. Do research in the summer after your first year, take a year-off after your second or third year to do a pathology research year or spend a year at the NIH (either through the NIH professional student program or through the HHMI Cloister program, although the Cloister program has existed since 1985, they just took their first DO student this year), and try to schedule a research elective during your third year. Another option is to do an extramural PhD through the NIH, although you don't need a PhD to have your own lab. When it comes time for residencies, it is essential that you enter a university-based program. Many programs will be more than happy to find time for you to pursue research, but an even better option, if you can get in, is to enter a physician-scientist residency since these pathways maximize your research time. After residency/fellowship, you'll be able to post-doc in your field, and although you'll primarily be in lab, depending on the university, you'll also have time in clinic. After your postdoc, you can start your own lab, assuming you can find the funding . I should also mention that the NIH funds field-specific postdocs at several, but not all, institutions.

 

[Styria]

The clinical faculty at medical schools teach and engage in research alongside clinical practice, and most are not MD/PhD or DO/PhD. The important thing is to be good in your field.

Medical schools, including osteopathic schools, engage in research as a requirement for maintaining accreditation.

 

[JaggerPlate]

'Teaching,' is a pretty broad term. I think if you did want to be some type of clinical instructor at an MD school ... your best bet would be completed an ACGME residency at a big academic center? Or, like others are saying, maybe getting a PhD too??? I dunno, it's not something I've looked into too much ...

 

[maroonstripes]

The only physician-scientist residency that is AOA credit is a neurology program that is dual ACGME and AOA accredited http://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residencyhttp://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residency
http://www.physicianscientists.org/careers/training/residency (this list isn't the end-all; there are definitely more)

Here's the skinny: academic medicine, and specifically basic research oriented academic medicine, isn't as popular as you might think. It's possible to be trained at an allopathic institution and to ultimately open a lab at an allopathic school. How often does it happen? Probably not that often, but then again, osteopathic medicine is not geared to nor does it seem to care about basic research. If you want to go into research, you need to be proactive. Do research in the summer after your first year, take a year-off after your second or third year to do a pathology research year or spend a year at the NIH (either through the NIH professional student program or through the HHMI Cloister program, although the Cloister program has existed since 1985, they just took their first DO student this year), and try to schedule a research elective during your third year. Another option is to do an extramural PhD through the NIH, although you don't need a PhD to have your own lab. When it comes time for residencies, it is essential that you enter a university-based program. Many programs will be more than happy to find time for you to pursue research, but an even better option, if you can get in, is to enter a physician-scientist residency since these pathways maximize your research time. After residency/fellowship, you'll be able to post-doc in your field, and although you'll primarily be in lab, depending on the university, you'll also have time in clinic. After your postdoc, you can start your own lab, assuming you can find the funding . I should also mention that the NIH funds field-specific postdocs at several, but not all, institutions.

Is anyone planning on taking a year off to do research after their second year? I would be most interested in hearing about someone's experience.

How would that affect your ability to perform well during rotations with a year's gap?

 

[WNT Signaling]

Is anyone planning on taking a year off to do research after their second year? I would be most interested in hearing about someone's experience.

How would that affect your ability to perform well during rotations with a year's gap?

After second year is really the ideal time to take time-off: you've already taken the USMLE, but you haven't started rotations, so you don't have to worry about forgetting things you learned in the clinic. Do a search for HHMI year, Sarnoff year, and Doris Duke year, and you'll be able to find info from people who have taken time off. I should also clarify that the HHMI year can spent on any type of basic research at the NIH, the Sarnoff is meant for people who want to do a year of cardiology research at any academic hospital (I don't know if they take DO students), Doris Duke is for a year of clinical research at one of twelve medical schools, although not all twelve schools accept DO students. Another good option is a pathology year. Some pathology years are strictly meant for shadowing and doing pathology, but some of the programs, notably UCSF and Stanford (UCSF had a DO student in the program last year) allow you to do 6+ months of research.