DO internship, then MD ophtho residency

[DOCTORSAIB]

I'm thinking of doing an osteopathic internship year (for several reasons) and applying for allopathic ophthalmology programs. I was wondering if anyone has heard of other DO students doing this. If so, did the MD ophtho programs have any objections?

I will contact individual programs to make sure this won't be a problem but wanted to know what the SDN ophtho community had to say..

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[teleret]

American Board of Ophthalmology does not recognize AOA internships. Checked and double-checked. Read ABO criteria for board certification on their home page, abo.org

 

[Taus]

aren't there a decent amt. of dually accreditted internships near PCOM?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Crap! This is not good news. My TOP choice hospital for internship offers this ridiculously cush osteopathic traditional rotating internship (the equivalent of the allopathic "transitional year"). Amazing call schedule, great pay ($47K+), awesome benefits, and only 15 minutes from my apartment.

They do have an allopathic transitional year at this same hospital with identical perks. Maybe I can gun for a spot there. More to come...

Taus- there are tons of TRI's in Philly but not that many dually-accredited programs. As far as I'm concerned, they're all Prelim Medicine internships and they're not particularly "cush."

 

[DOapplicant]

I've also looked into this. all programs I've contacted told me that my pgy-1 yr MUST be acgme approved.

seems like the safest bet is a dually accredited pgy1 spot.
as a caveat, there was an article [ i believe in last month's JAOA; yes, i actually read it ] that reviewed the process of attaining a waiver to become 'AOA approved' with a pgy1 yr that is only acgme approved. it turns out success rate for being awarded this waiver is relatively high.

good luck to all of with this juggling act.

 

[Taus]

hmm...I know this isn't really the right forum for this...and I don't mean to hijack your thread....but does an AOA prelim year or dually accred. internship satisty the AOA requirement for the 5 states? ...or does it specifically need to be a TRI?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

hmm...I know this isn't really the right forum for this...and I don't mean to hijack your thread....but does an AOA prelim year or dually accred. internship satisty the AOA requirement for the 5 states? ...or does it specifically need to be a TRI?

As long it's an AOA-approved internship, it will satisfy their stupid 5 state requirement. If I sound frustrated, it's b/c I am.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

American Board of Ophthalmology does not recognize AOA internships. Checked and double-checked. Read ABO criteria for board certification on their home page, abo.org

You are definitely right about that. I just called up the American Board of Ophthalmology and spoke to the "administrator." The ABO will NOT accept AOA-accredited internships and have not since the 1970's (and probably will not anytime in the near future). The person on the phone told me that DO's who've completed an allopathic ophtho residency and applied for board certification have actually been REJECTED in the past b/c they never completed an ACGME-accredited internship! Yeah, that sucks big time.

To any osteopathic student interested in allopathic ophthalmology, PLEASE do your research first. Make sure you apply for either a dually-accredited (AOA + ACGME accredited) or just plain ACGME-accredited PGY-1 programs! Obviously, the benefit of the former is that you won't have to go through Resolution 42 and the AOA's approval process to get your ACGME internship to count towards their ridiculous requirement-and eventually be able to practice in those "5 states." (PA, MI, WVA, FL, and OK).

Hope this info is helpful for the few DO's out there interested in allopathic ophtho...

 

[sether52do]

Any idea of where there is a listing of the dually accredited internship programs? I don't really want to go through the whole resolution 42 business.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Any idea of where there is a listing of the dually accredited internship programs? I don't really want to go through the whole resolution 42 business.

No. I'd LOVE to see such a list if it exists.

 

[Taus]

No. I'd LOVE to see such a list if it exists.

http://opportunities.osteopathic.org/search/search.cfm click on the box at the bottom of the page

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

http://opportunities.osteopathic.org/search/search.cfm click on the box at the bottom of the page

Thanks bro!