Landing a Residency in California as a DO

[theone1979]

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hey guys

I have a question about the relative difficulty of landing a residency in California as a DO. The reason I ask is that I have heard several people state that in addition to California being a very competitive state to match to, California is not particularly DO friendly and that being a DO puts you at a large disadvantage when attempting to match in this state. Is any of this true?

I know that a lot of this depends on what specialty we are talking about here (obviously it will be harder for DO's to match in the extremely competitive residencies in ANY state), but I am just trying to get a sense of whether I will face significant hurdles when trying to land a residency in Cali as a DO in a field like EM or IM.

Thanks.

 

[megathunder]

I've met plenty of DO's in CA, especially in the ER, and at some major hospitals. One even went to Stanford for his residency.

 

[JaggerPlate]

I don't know why people say CA isn't 'DO friendly' (whatever that means). The state has 2 DO schools, comprised a HUGE chunk of applicants for the 2010 cycle, and you'll see lots of practicing and resident DOs all over CA.

Frankly, the only real biases I'm aware of in CA are a few select UCs (good luck with these in general though) and some musings about 'Nor Cal' (and since I was born and raised in So Cal, I 'hella' don't care what happens in Nor Cal). Other than that, it seems like DOs do just fine in CA. Like you said, people want to get back/move to CA, so all residency positions, MD, DO, etc, are more competitive there (as are the school admission standards).

However, I wouldn't look at it as something that's a huge barrier - take a look at some nearby matchlists (Western, TU-CA, TU-NV, AZCOM) to confirm.

 

[SFO-IST]

I'd recommend you check the match lists of Western and Touro-CA for a robust answer to your question. If you're looking for anecdotal answers, I shadowed at UC Davis' ER and there were DO's there.

 

[UBCvan]

here are the match lists:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7413523&postcount=640

 

[Kevin Baker]

I believe there are about 89 California slots in the AOA match. That's not much, but it is something, and some are EM or IM.

 

[Sinfest]

Touro-CA Match Lists
2009: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=7950576&postcount=81
2010: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9503588&postcount=136

Western COMP Match Lists
2009: http://www.westernu.edu/bin/osteopathy/opti-west/2009AOAMatch.pdf
2010: http://www.westernu.edu/bin/osteopathy/opti-west/2010match.pdf

 

[SFO-IST]

Damn, I'm proud of how helpful everyone's been to the OP. I hope I get to work with people like you in 5 years.

 

[munchymanRX]

hey guys

I have a question about the relative difficulty of landing a residency in California as a DO. The reason I ask is that I have heard several people state that in addition to California being a very competitive state to match to, California is not particularly DO friendly and that being a DO puts you at a large disadvantage when attempting to match in this state. Is any of this true?

I know that a lot of this depends on what specialty we are talking about here (obviously it will be harder for DO's to match in the extremely competitive residencies in ANY state), but I am just trying to get a sense of whether I will face significant hurdles when trying to land a residency in Cali as a DO in a field like EM or IM.

Thanks.

The hurdles you're talking about come mainly from the fact that CA has a lot of people applying for its programs. This alone makes it pretty competitive. Depending on what you want to do, you have a similar shot as your MD counterparts. Just be sure to do well on your USMLEs and knock off an audition rotation or two if you can.

 

[jd1031]

I work at an allopathic teaching hospital in California. It seems like the only DO bias I've seen was in the surgery department (surgeons EDIT: see my post below for an update). Even Anesthesiologists are pretty DO friendly (one, and MD, even encouraged me to apply to DO as well as MD), and there are numerous DOs in IM, ER, and FM.

From what I've seen, residency depends alot on individual effort, whether MD or DO. Though, it is a little bit harder to go to allopathic residencies as a DO.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

Yeah, I'm hoping to do EM some day. Checked USC's list of residents. One guy came from AZCOM and is now an instructor there.

 

[7wonders]

Hi,
I'm a current student at AZCOM and will be doing my 3rd year rotations in LA. I would also like to do residency in California. Yesterday, the program director for a DO EM residency in southern CA came to speak to our Emergency Medicine Club. His advice was to rotate at the hospitals where you're interested in doing residency. He also told us about a 3rd year DO student who rotated through his ER and went on to do residency at UCLA. Rock your boards, work hard on your rotations and you'll be competative wherever you decide to go🙂

 

[JaggerPlate]

I worked at a big academic, ACGME associated So Cal ER in undergrad ... the Chief of EM there (absolute rockstar) was a DO.

Another funny So Cal anecdote ... my PCP in So Cal is a DO from KCOM (and the reason I first researched DO schools) and is honestly probably the most popular doc in the whole county. He does peds and general/adult FM, and you honestly can't even discuss going to the 'Dr' with a group of people from where I live (big area too) without someone saying they go to him.

Well, about a year ago, he had a falling out with the health care group he worked with (wasn't his fault - one of his staff was doing BAD things and he refused to press charges after firing her) and they cut ties with him in an unfair way. He was going to retire, but after a vicious facebook campaign (no joke), people sending flyers to all his patients, making phone calls (don't even know how they got the information), he essentially was convinced not to retire and to keep pushing on.

Last time I went to see him, we had like a 15 minute chat about DOs, KCOM, practicing in So Cal, etc, and he didn't seem to have anything negative or any warnings for me (and his house in Huntington beach and 911 in the parking lot leads me to believe he's not hurting from any perceived DO unfriendliness )

 

[Asianboy]

Hi wonders,

Would you mind to share with us what hospitals you will rotate in third year? What rotation and hospital you will do for wards? I am also interesting in rotating in LA and I'm AZCOM 2015 class. Thanks

Hi,
I'm a current student at AZCOM and will be doing my 3rd year rotations in LA. I would also like to do residency in California. Yesterday, the program director for a DO EM residency in southern CA came to speak to our Emergency Medicine Club. His advice was to rotate at the hospitals where you're interested in doing residency. He also told us about a 3rd year DO student who rotated through his ER and went on to do residency at UCLA. Rock your boards, work hard on your rotations and you'll be competative wherever you decide to go🙂

 

[jd1031]

It shouldn't be too hard. I just found out (literally 5 minutes ago) that two surgical residents where I work at are DOs (they had MD on their name tag). One was from Western, the other from Touro-CA.

They just said (for surgery) do research, rotate in the places where you want to do residency, and study for the USMLE from day 1 of med school.

 

[7wonders]

Hi AsianBoy,
Welcome to AZCOM and congratulations on your acceptance! Here is a link to the rotation sites for each region. These are subject to change. Hope this helps!
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...803890777073793.00048d6d0b79e45800f57&t=h&z=5

For LA, our Ward based IM is at Verde Valley Regional Medical Center (Cottonwood AZ) which is also considered rural. Because our IM takes care of our rural requirement, we get a 3rd year elective rotation.