- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 0
Ok, calm down. No need to get your bp hitting the ceiling.
I am actually going to attend a DO school next year, and just wanted to share information with other fellow pre-meds that may be worrying about MD>DO and all the so-called 'stigma' talk circulating in college pre-med classes (Not here to start a war. Just want to share information)
I was fortunate to be able to speak with a DO doing her fellowship in Ped.Hem.Onc. and a couple residency directors in Oregon (One, who is Ped.Hem.Onc. in OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital and another, who is IM, within Legacy Health Systems in Portland.) They are both M.D.s and I knew them for some time. They were able to share their thoughts on osteopathic medicine with me, since I was applying to DO schools :
To sum up the conversations I had with all three doctors, they said:
In primary care fields (FM, PED, IM, etc) at a general hospital(non-academic), there is no feelings of stigma with a D.O. degree at all. DOs are considered as equal in competence to MDs.
In academia, however, it is more difficult for DOs to be considered equal to MDs. This is not because DOs are not as smart as MDs. It is because the goal of academic physicians in university hospitals is to climb the professor ladder (associate professor, etc.) All 3 doctors said that DOs are known to be trained with more focus on patient care , rather than MDs who are schooled with a more research focus. That being said, it is more difficult for DOs to work in academic hospitals (not saying impossible; just a little harder). That being said, it is slightly more difficult for DOs to go into fields like oncology, where research is a huge factor. (Again, DO focuses on clinical, MDs on research)
Each residency director has a ranking of DO schools that their program selects students from. This ranking list is different for EVERY hospital. I know in the Legacy health systems in Oregon, the residency director for IM program told me they favor heavily IM graduates from Western and DMU-COM, and Touro-CA. (Geographics is a huge factor, since students from the east are less likely to apply to oregon.) This ranking list that the program has, is mostly based on the most recent resident's assessment- Therefore, if there is a resident that graduated from Western that was excellent that year, for example, the residency program will more likely choose another candidate from Western the next year. The director actually even said there were some schools whose students they won't consider at all the next year because of the poor assessments of residents.
They all stressed that if you are interested in primary care, DOs definitely = MDs. If you are interested in fields relating to research, there will be a slight disadvantage to be DO instead of MDs.
All in all, I think how your upperclass students do in their residency will impact your future. (This goes for MD schools as well)
BTW, i'm excited to attend DO school, where I will be able to get the best patient care training I will need for the future. This post was just to share knowledge with you at the residency level.
I am actually going to attend a DO school next year, and just wanted to share information with other fellow pre-meds that may be worrying about MD>DO and all the so-called 'stigma' talk circulating in college pre-med classes (Not here to start a war. Just want to share information)
I was fortunate to be able to speak with a DO doing her fellowship in Ped.Hem.Onc. and a couple residency directors in Oregon (One, who is Ped.Hem.Onc. in OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital and another, who is IM, within Legacy Health Systems in Portland.) They are both M.D.s and I knew them for some time. They were able to share their thoughts on osteopathic medicine with me, since I was applying to DO schools :
To sum up the conversations I had with all three doctors, they said:
In primary care fields (FM, PED, IM, etc) at a general hospital(non-academic), there is no feelings of stigma with a D.O. degree at all. DOs are considered as equal in competence to MDs.
In academia, however, it is more difficult for DOs to be considered equal to MDs. This is not because DOs are not as smart as MDs. It is because the goal of academic physicians in university hospitals is to climb the professor ladder (associate professor, etc.) All 3 doctors said that DOs are known to be trained with more focus on patient care , rather than MDs who are schooled with a more research focus. That being said, it is more difficult for DOs to work in academic hospitals (not saying impossible; just a little harder). That being said, it is slightly more difficult for DOs to go into fields like oncology, where research is a huge factor. (Again, DO focuses on clinical, MDs on research)
Each residency director has a ranking of DO schools that their program selects students from. This ranking list is different for EVERY hospital. I know in the Legacy health systems in Oregon, the residency director for IM program told me they favor heavily IM graduates from Western and DMU-COM, and Touro-CA. (Geographics is a huge factor, since students from the east are less likely to apply to oregon.) This ranking list that the program has, is mostly based on the most recent resident's assessment- Therefore, if there is a resident that graduated from Western that was excellent that year, for example, the residency program will more likely choose another candidate from Western the next year. The director actually even said there were some schools whose students they won't consider at all the next year because of the poor assessments of residents.
They all stressed that if you are interested in primary care, DOs definitely = MDs. If you are interested in fields relating to research, there will be a slight disadvantage to be DO instead of MDs.
All in all, I think how your upperclass students do in their residency will impact your future. (This goes for MD schools as well)
BTW, i'm excited to attend DO school, where I will be able to get the best patient care training I will need for the future. This post was just to share knowledge with you at the residency level.
This is exactly what I have heard from DO's in academic vs. non-academic hospitals as well. 
