information, work, salary on DO

[dvdrv31]

ok, I know overall what DO is about. but is their work comparable to MDs? How come I haven't seen that many DOs? What about the job opportunities and salaries for DOs? comparable to MDs? thanks for any information and comments.

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[phd2b]

Depending upon where you live, you may not have ever met a real live D.O...they are out there, however.

To quickly answer your questions, they do everything that MD's do (plus they can also do OMT), get paid the same as MD's, and ultimately have the same job opportunities domestically. There are some allopathic sub-specialty residency programs that might be more competitive for a DO grad, but most DO's are more interested in primary care than sub-specialties.

You can do a search on this forum and you'll see all of this rehashed about a 100 times!

 

[Dr JPH]

Salaries are identical for MD's and DO's.

Opportunities in different specialty and subspecialty fields are identical.

There are DO's working in every area of health care.

Is there work comparable? If you mean "can they do the same thing?"...yes.

If you mean "is it of the same quality?"...some people will argue that the work of a DO is superior...but that question is a bit tough to answer because the type of person makes the physician, not necessarily the training.

Why haven't you seen many DO's? Well, there are currently 124 (+/- a few) MD schools turning out graduates every year as compared to only 19 DO schools.

It also depends on what state you live in and where you are looking. There are some states that are "DO Friendly"...these are states that have DO schools and a large population of DO's...Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan just to name a few.

Also, try looking at the primary care areas for DO's. This is where a large portion of DO's practice. (Family Med, Peds, OB/GYN, Internal Med)

For more information, visit www.aacom.org

Great website.

Good luck!