"MD vs. DO" is meaningless in terms of prestige (to the average person)

[dyspareunia]

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Also, psychiatrist=psychologist=psychoanalyst, and you determine your specialty prior to applying. So after four years bam you're an interventional cardiologist or a pulm/ccm/interventional pulmonologist, it's that simple! The nurses I work with ask me all time what type of med school I'm going to (i.e., are you going to a psych med school, a GI med school, a surgery med school, etc.). It's pretty pathetic, especially coming from people in the medical field.

I've run into this as well. People who know I'm in med school ask "what are you learning to be?". In the beginning I didn't really know how to answer... "Uh, a doctor...?"

 

[dyspareunia]

@studentp0x

Isn't there an element of propaganda in making threads like these?

For example, if no one thought there was any difference between an MD or a DO then making this thread is pointless. If however you made the thread to "convince"(lol) people that they are in fact equivalent, isn't that an acknowledgement they are in fact not the same thing in at least in an SDN'ers perception.

So your attempt comes off as an "insidious" attempt to convince the pre-med-allo population of SDN that the general population of the country doesn't consider your MD to be any better than the DO, based off on your "experience" with 300 million Americans.

So, I think saying "take a hike" at this juncture would be appropriate. You haven't brought to bear any data to prove your point, nor are you addressing how the differences in training contribute to differences or similarities, nor how patient outcomes for both MD's or OD's don't differ. This thread offers nothing substantial, merely an attempt at rabble-rousing.

I love how autocorrect changes DO to OD. Case in point really.

 

[WillburCobb]

Are you serious? That's so depressing

No yoke. The psychiatrist=psychologist=psychoanalyst thing really bothers me though especially the vast majority who think psychologist=psychoanalyst. Freud was a neurologist who had absolutely nothing to do with psychology. Psychologists and psychoanalysts have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from each other since their incarnation. End rant.

 

[touchpause13]

No yoke. The psychiatrist=psychologist=psychoanalyst thing really bothers me though especially the vast majority who think psychologist=psychoanalyst. Freud was a neurologist who had absolutely nothing to do with psychology. Psychologists and psychoanalysts have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from each other since their incarnation. End rant.

That annoys me to no end. Both my parents are psychologists and I'm going to a DO school to become a psychiatrist. You can imagine the confusion. Oh and my cousin is a PA at a psych residency.

 

[Psai]

That annoys me to no end. Both my parents are psychologists and I'm going to a DO school to become a psychiatrist. You can imagine the confusion. Oh and my cousin is a PA at a psych residency in the cities.

Well it makes no sense to have MDs as psychiatrists and Ph.D.s as psychologists. Neurologist, anesthesiologist, cardiologist, psychiatrist vs physicist, biologist, chemist, psychologist.

 

[touchpause13]

Well it makes no sense to have MDs as psychiatrists and Ph.D.s as psychologists. Neurologist, anesthesiologist, cardiologist, psychiatrist vs physicist, biologist, chemist, psychologist.

Lolwut

 

[lmn]

You must live in a fairly uneducated area, pretty much everyone in my area knows what an MD is, DO on the other hand is generally pretty unknown. That doesn't mean that when they show up at the ER that they won't call them doctor or respect them though.

Well it makes no sense to have MDs as psychiatrists and Ph.D.s as psychologists. Neurologist, anesthesiologist, cardiologist, psychiatrist vs physicist, biologist, chemist, psychologist.

You do know that the two are very different right?? And what do you want to call someone who studies biology or physics? Plant researcher? Gravity investigator? Ya, maybe we should just dumb everything down to a stupid level that doesn't really make sense just so the lay person who is ignorant can understand...

 

[Espadaleader]

These debates are often made on poor, silly, juvenile arguments that I won't go into here. DOs do not have the respect in medicine/academia because they don't have large research programs and established medical centers. It's that simple. DO schools need to invest more in research infrastructure. Until then, they will not be considered on the same level of MD schools. I am a big supporter of osteopathic medicine and I am upset that DO schools are weak in research comparatively speaking.

 

[bsebrero1]

Espadaleader would you say this is also true for DO schools like MSU COM and OSU COM?

 

[Dwan]

The average person knows what an MD is at most places...The MD distinction is used in many countries.

 

[V5RED]

Personally, MD was not part of my vocabulary until I decided to return to school to be a physician and along the way found out that medical doctors get a special set of letters. I just assumed they all had a PhD in medicine since up until then I thought everyone with a doctoral level of learning had a PhD in that topic. Obviously DO was also not part of my vocabulary.

 

[WillburCobb]

For me, the difference is that MD is recognized internationally whereas DOs can't practice in other countries. If you're American looking to stay in America, it shouldn't be very important, but as a foreigner, I can't imagine if I wanted to move back and had to give up my (fingers crossed!) medical career to do so.

I think you need to do some more research...

 

[type12]

Don't worry, America will continue to impose it's stubborn ways of creating confusion and inefficiencies! Switzerland has historically proven to be immune to it, but eventually!

canadianinusa, while what you say is true, I'm just going to warn you that some people in these forums don't like the truth when it's offensive. You are implying DOs and MDs are separate, and, as a consequence, not equal. This idea stems from the very core of logic, yes, but that doesn't make it any less offensive.

Sadly, I'm only partly kidding. It's a real issue, about DO's recognition outside of the US, but this problem is dismissed as "Well any place worth a human life accepts DOs, the rest of humanity can drop dead." It's a really strange kind of doublethink.

 

[touchpause13]

I should have been more clear, unfortunately it's not recognized in some of the countries where I'm interested in living. I'm Canadian but my husband is from Europe and we would like to keep our options open.
http://www.fmh.ch/files/pdf14/medbg_hearing_sgk_s_100214_d.pdf
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostéopathie

Il faut noter qu'un médecin ostéopathe qui n'aurait pas suivi d'autre formation que celle dispensée en faculté n'aurait pas le droit d'exercer en Suisse par insuffisance de formation.
Bad translation, but it means it must be noted that an osteopathic doctor who hasn't received other training does not have the right to practice in Switzerland because of insufficient training.

I read the link, most providences en Canada allow DOs to have full practice rights.

(Lol sorry for the spelling error, this is what happens when I go back and forth from French to English)

 

[WillburCobb]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Osteopathic_Medicine

Though there are some countries where there are limitations, DOs have practice rights throughout much of the world. The table in this article has grown substantially in the past 10 years and will very likely continue to do so.

 

[KnuxNole]

True, the average person doesn't give a ****. Most people assume you don't have to go through training(residency? the hell is that? aren't you a real doctor or not????), or has any knowledge about different schools.

Hell, the average person is starting to assume that blond lady with the white coat is an MD/DO when they are really the NP.

The layperson assumes physicians, dentists, optometrists, NPs, are in the same medical provider bubble, which makes sense. I think some people might be giving too much credit to the American public if they assume most people are highly educated around them 😛

Then again too, a doctor isn't that prestigious...I cringe when people think it's a big deal that I'm a physician. It's not like you have to be intelligent to actually be one, or do anything special/stand out.

You would think that people would pay attention, at least a little, to the world around them.

Welcome to America 🙂

 

[KnuxNole]

That's totally fine, but I think at least in pre allo a lot of people forget that not everyone is like that.

This. Academia is horrendous in my eyes, and want no part of that whatsoever. Then again, I'm the guy who hates that, and research with a burning passion. This may be the huge minority on this site, but I don't ever care for advancing the field, giving lectures or rounding bullcrap(My take on academic rounds: Shut the **** up, get work done already!), performing any research, or spending one iota of a second in anything academic related, like ever.

Thankfully, after med school, I can do as little to none of that **** as possible.

 

[KnuxNole]

Everyone. Would you attend a seminar/talk by Dr. Nobody or Dr. Cured Cancer? If a person says they don't care, they're either lying or not the sharping tool in the drawer.

Thank you Underu, that's on point too.

Most people would only watch a talk show(most laypeople won't waste their time on boring seminars) with the attractive doctor, or Dr. Oz. Or most people wont waste their time, and read a headline about it on Facebook.

 

[Willy38]

DMD vs DDS is a similar topic. Do people really know the difference/care to? The average person would probably reply "no". They do care about the treatment they get and the results they see. You can be a great, well known doc either route you go.

since The Hangover movies people may know now lol "Stew you're a dentist.."

 

[Tommyguns89]

Who cares about prestige? I cant imagine doing anything solely for the prestige of it. That sounds like a terrible way to live, especially when you consider that most of us likely have between 50-80 years before we are rotting in the ground. DO schools are fine unless you want the best shot at the most competitive residencies. Other then that the only reason why going to a DO school might sting in the long run is that they usually have higher tuition.

 

[wanderer]

Who cares about prestige? I cant imagine doing anything solely for the prestige of it. That sounds like a terrible way to live, especially when you consider that most of us likely have between 50-80 years before we are rotting in the ground. DO schools are fine unless you want the best shot at the most competitive residencies. Other then that the only reason why going to a DO school might sting in the long run is that they usually have higher tuition.

Yea - but come application time most of the people wanting ENT, urology, derm, plastic, vascular, neurosurg etc. settle for something else because the odds of matching those from DO are not too good. DO will shut a lot of doors for those residencies.

 

[WillburCobb]

And we now have a full on MD v DO thread...

 

[KnuxNole]

Yea - but come application time most of the people wanting ENT, urology, derm, plastic, vascular, neurosurg etc. settle for something else because the odds of matching those from DO are not too good. DO will shut a lot of doors for those residencies.

Similar with MD schools, except those same people realize it's highly unlikely, and go for other realistic options. After all, not everyone can do a competitive speciality. It's more of a rare sight than not.

 

[Gauss44]

My answer to question in title: Most non-doctors I know don't know what a D.O. is. They seem divided where half see both MDs and DOs similarly as just plain ol doctors and would go to either. The other half of non-doctors I know, prefer MDs because they don't know what a DO is, and like to stick with what's familiar.