DO in academic psychiatry?

[lcg16]

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I was recently accepted to med school! However, it is a DO program rather than an MD program (however, one of the most well respected in the country). I'm interested in going into academic medicine in psychiatry, and am concerned that being a DO will impact my ability to pursue this goal. How much does DO vs. MD matter when applying to residency? Is there anything I would need to do in med school to increase my odds (I already have some experience in research - a few posters and am doing a master's thesis which hopefully will be published)?

 

[Unico]

First, congratulations!

Overall, having a DO degree vs. a MD shouldn't affect your ability to pursue a career in academia. Residency programs can be a bit more selective, but the residency programs for MD and DO programs will be combined by 2020. Currently, DO students can apply to MD programs but not visa-versa. The merger will allow all medical school graduates to match into any program despite previous categorization of the programs as MD or DO.

Read more here: http://www.osteopathic.org/inside-aoa/single-gme-accreditation-system/Pages/default.aspx

From my understanding, most academic fields in medicine have a high demand so your accreditation as a MD or DO shouldn't matter. Could someone verify?

Good luck and all the best


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[MacDonaldTriad]

do you want to have an academic career as in be a researcher, or have a pseudo-academic career as in get paid poorly to work at an academic medical center as a clinician or clinician educator? If the former, then obviously you would be infinitely better off going to an MD school since osteopathic schools don't tend to do research or have the kind of mentorship that would allow you to grow as an academic. If the latter, then it shouldn't matter all that much

This and well stated. I can think of only a couple of exceptions. Academics is about the only place where the MD / DO distinction matters. As far as residency, training programs are variably academic, but academic by definition.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Right, your options in terms of establishing a career or focus in research at most DO schools are going to be limited. You'll have some time to do research in your 3rd and 4th year, but almost none during the summers or during the year.
If you're a hot-shot and you can find a few hours a week to shave off to dedicate to research in a lab, then you'll probably be able to find something and with someone through networking. However, even then doing that without having grades suffer is rare.

But the path probably isn't entirely closed as much as you have to go out of your way to achieve it. Making it into a good residency and then doing a research fellowship probably will provide you options to get into academic medicine.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Keep in mind your mind is likely to change during residency. I know mine has, nothing worse in medicine than politics and academics is rampant with stupid political BS. Quite often having little to nothing to do with patient care.

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[Therapist4Chnge]

do you want to have an academic career as in be a researcher, or have a pseudo-academic career as in get paid poorly to work at an academic medical center as a clinician or clinician educator? If the former, then obviously you would be infinitely better off going to an MD school since osteopathic schools don't tend to do research or have the kind of mentorship that would allow you to grow as an academic. If the latter, then it shouldn't matter all that much

/thread

 

[HarryMTieboutMD]

Agreed with above that your research opportunities will be limited in med school unless you take time off to do research (not sure if Doris Duke, etc are open to DO students). However, you can still build a research career starting in residency, but you will need to match at a program with the infrastructure and support to foster that. When I was interviewing, many big name places that have a tradition of producing academicians (meaning, researchers) had 1-2 DOs dispersed throughout their programs. Emory, UTSW, Wash U, MUSC, and Hopkins are some that come to mind. The very top tier (MGH, Columbia, UCLA, Yale, etc) are probably off the table but that's the case for a lot of strong US MDs as well (none of them gave me an interview!). However, by the time you are applying there will be more US MD grads so matching at places like these might be more difficult...

 

[PistolPete]

Keep in mind your mind is likely to change during residency. I know mine has, nothing worse in medicine than politics and academics is rampant with stupid political BS. Quite often having little to nothing to do with patient care.

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Completely agree. So much politics in academia... it's worse than high school!!

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Inflating one's ego by looking down on the accomplishments of others is a time honored academic skill. It is best begun by practicing question asking in a way that emphasizes your own subject knowledge and clearly points out how yours trumps the speaker's. Sometimes people don't even manage to insert a real question into their self promotion. Narcissists tend to do this unabashedly, and anti socials can be more subtle, but seem to get the point across just the same. You can also prepare by extending your ring finger in such a way that you clearly expect people to kiss it, but I would save this until you make full professor.

Truthfully, most academic types are fairly humble and nice people. Collectively somehow this is more true than it should be. High school students could learn a thing or two from our elitism.

 

[Unico]

Academics is about the only place where the MD / DO distinction matters.

Interesting, thanks for the knowledge.

I'm assuming this is equally true for AMG MD vs. IMG/FMG MDs as well, would that be a safe bet?



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[splik]

Interesting, thanks for the knowledge.

I'm assuming this is equally true for AMG MD vs. IMG/FMG MDs as well, would that be a safe bet?

no not at all unless youre talking about americans who went to caribbean or something

 

[Unico]

no not at all unless youre talking about americans who went to caribbean or something

Yes, I just wanted to cover all bases for OP in case they were thinking of going to the Caribbean


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[Amygdarya]

I agree that it's harder for DOs to launch an academic career, mostly because of lack of research opportunities and exposure to important people in the field. That said, it seems like residency is the real bottleneck for entering academic medicine - DOs (and even Caribbean graduates) do manage to get into academic medicine if they train at fairly prestigious academic residencies. (I'm at one of the proverbial evil ivory tower institutions, and even here we have DOs and Caribbean graduates in multiple departments, including clinical, research and administrative positions.) Getting into a prestigious academic residency has gotten more difficult though.

For FMGs - people who got their medical education abroad (and not at Caribbean schools) it mostly depends on where they come from. Clearly, nobody's going to doubt academic prowess of an Oxford graduate (and we have those here, too).