How does one become a MD/DO?

[dmitrinyr]

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Someone probably has asked this question before but I was wondering how does a person obtain a both an MD and DO degree. A friend of mine's had suggested to me that you can do so by graduating from a DO school, while taking and passing both COMPLEX Steps I-III and USMLE Steps I-III. I just saw a physician's advertisement who was a DO/MD and wondered how one can attain both degrees.

dmitri

 

[DrMom]

The COMLEX and USMLE are licensing exams and don't confer any degree.

From what I understand, there's a school (maybe more than one), in the Caribbean that will (for a fee) give US trained DOs an MD.

There is absolutely no reason to do this, though. They are completely equivalent degrees.

 

[oceandocDO]

NYCOM has a program for offshore MDs who would like to practice in the States as a D.O. After graduation they can use the MD/DO title. It's a very competitive program, used to be an accelerated 3 year program but mostly at the request of the students in the program it was changed to 4 years this year. Apparently the 3 year course crammed too much into the 3rd year between clerkships, both Steps I and II of the boards, interviewing, etc.

The fact that you take board exams has NOTHING to do with the degree you earn. If you'd like, you can graduate medical school and never take Step III of the boards, COMLEX or USMLE, and still use the title of DO or MD, you just wont have a license to practice medicine. Licensure and degree confered are two very different things.

 

[sgilani]

is there anyway that students attending an allopathic school in the states can also be liscensed DOs?