MD vs. DO

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
A

Akshat

Junior Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2005
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Members don't see this ad.
Hey guys I had a question regarding being an MD vs. a DO. I posted in the pre-allopathic forums and they send me here. So here goes.


I have heard from family members and surgeons that I have shadowed that it is better to go MD rather than DO. With a DO you are restricted as to what specialties you can and can't do. Such as surgery, they usally pick MD's over DO's. Is this true, or is it just based on a person to person basis.

If anyone knows please, you input will be much appreciated. Thanks
 
Akshat said:
Hey guys I had a question regarding being an MD vs. a DO. I posted in the pre-allopathic forums and they send me here. So here goes.


I have heard from family members and surgeons that I have shadowed that it is better to go MD rather than DO. With a DO you are restricted as to what specialties you can and can't do. Such as surgery, they usally pick MD's over DO's. Is this true, or is it just based on a person to person basis.

If anyone knows please, you input will be much appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

This is on a person-to-person basis. There is no general rule. D.O.'s have the opportunity to take the M.D. boards and do well on them to compete for the most difficult surgical subspecialties.

It also depends on the region, whether it has a high or low number of D.O.'s.

Also, keep in mind that most specialties are available through the D.O. residency programs, and so only the few that aren't available require you to compete with M.D.'s.

Most D.O.'s aren't even required to take the M.D. boards in the less competitive specialties.

The benefit of being a D.O. is that you can apply to many more residencies than M.D.s (Both the M.D. and D.O. residencies.)

The best thing to do is to look around at different programs for specialties you are interested in, and see if they have any D.O. residents. It is very likely that if they accepted them before, they will accept them again.

When I apply to M.D. residencies, I plan on applying to the ones that currently have D.O. residents. For certain M.D. specialties, that number is relatively high, and it is even difficult to find and M.D. residency that hasn't has a D.O. resident.

Of course this is not true for all specialties. It really depends on what you do. Even if you find that this is not true, you can always do well as a D.O. on the M.D. boards, and impress them during your rotation. This will likely be all you need to get in.
 
Ok, you're clearly a newbie, so I'm only going to give you a light tap on the head with the ****** stick so that subsequent posters may go easy on you... THWACK! See? Not so bad.

There are hundreds of other posts on this topic, but to sum it up, it basically depends on which specialty you want. The most competitive specialties are hard to get no matter which letters you have after your name.

I got in to osteopathy because it was the best "fit" for me.

Research some more about each profession and prospective schools - plus get to know more about you and what you really want. The choice should be more obvious then.

:luck:

NS
 
Akshat said:
Hey guys I had a question regarding being an MD vs. a DO. I posted in the pre-allopathic forums and they send me here. So here goes.


I have heard from family members and surgeons that I have shadowed that it is better to go MD rather than DO. With a DO you are restricted as to what specialties you can and can't do. Such as surgery, they usally pick MD's over DO's. Is this true, or is it just based on a person to person basis.

If anyone knows please, you input will be much appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

You should have done a search before posting this here.
There are way too many threads about the difference and the lack of differences (way too many similarities).

Simply put: The difference is you will be a D.O. and not an M.D.
Yes there are some M.D.s who are still biase against D.O.s. If you can get into an MD program and want to do surgery... go to MD program. The end.
 
GD I get sick of these
 
I think SDN should have a function that automatically deletes a post with the title "MD vs. DO" or "DO vs. MD" or "DO vs. Carribbean" and then sends a PM to the poster saying "Do a search!!!"
 
I appologize for posting this thread. Its just that i posted it in other forums and they told me to come here b/c you guys have first hand experience. I ask the MD's and some say DO is fine and some say its not worth it. I don't know what to do. I don't know who to believe. My counselers say the same thing, everybody is split. So I thought if I actually asked the DO's I would get a solid concrete answer.

Once again I appologize for posting this thread, i read all the others and didn't really find any concrete evidence to my questions so I decided to post a new thread. Thanks.


Akshat
 
Being DO you have to be tough and work hard. You will be people that do not know what DOs are say something offensive sometimes. If you want to be a doctor and don't care about whether MD or DO, try the DO route as well. DOs maybe at some disadvantage for some specialty, but there are DOs that have over come these things. Even if you are MD, there is no guarantee that you will get into competitive specialty, and you still have to work hard. In the end it will entirely be up to you either way.
 
Are there certain specialties residencies tend to bias MD's over DO's?
 
Akshat said:
Are there certain specialties residencies tend to bias MD's over DO's?
Click to expand...

Surgery & surg subspecialty. Rads is tough no matter who you are. Derm is derm man, good luck. In previous posts I tried to explain that its possible to land A university based allo gen surg program it just takes work. Big deal, whats new.

For subspecialty surgery you better have some big research, big numbers, and stellar rotations if you want any shot at all. Allo ortho, pretty much forget it. I know only of one guy who matched and he's at the Maricopa County program in AZ. Osteopathic programs are still an option however. ENT, Ortho, Uro (I think the Cook County program rocks) are out there though. Still very difficult to attain however.

Popular things for DO's: FP, IM, OB, Peds, Gas, PM&R (cool field), & EM. No problem what so ever landing high quality programs in those fields. Individual performance is still the largest predictor of success, go figure. I don't know of anyone going into path. Strange but perhaps not considering lots o' DO's enjoy the whole patient interaction thing.

Level the playing field by: taking USMLE (and doing decent), planning out strong rotations late 3rd/early 4th year, land some/a f(ph)at letters, do a couple of audition rotations (doesn't have to be where you end up but at least get some letters and great experience), read about your interested field during rotations, and do research if you plan on going for something highly competitive. Common sense but easier said than done.
 
Akshat said:
Are there certain specialties residencies tend to bias MD's over DO's?
Click to expand...

There is a thread a ways back dealing with DOs trying to match into allo surgery. I'll see if I can find the link to it.

From what I have been told by students trying to match and by graduates is that it is hard to get into allo general surgery residency programs as a DO. There is definately a bias there in that a average MD student will probably match somewhere in general surg where as an outstanding DO student may not match at all. A DO orthopod recently told me that I can pretty much forget about the allo surgical specialties like Ortho and optho.

That being said there isn't a problem matching into osteo surgery resiencies. All the surgeons I've met from them seem to be extremely well trained.
 
I would ultimately like to become a General Surgeon and then specialize in Cardio Thoracic. With this being said, if I wanted to go down this road. Would it be better for an MD or DO. Overall i mean.
 
Akshat said:
I would ultimately like to become a General Surgeon and then specialize in Cardio Thoracic. With this being said, if I wanted to go down this road. Would it be better for an MD or DO. Overall i mean.
Click to expand...

Can you get into an MD program? If the answer is YES, then do MD program. It will make it easier to go into Cardio Thorasic Surgery or Cardiac Plastic Surgery.
 
Akshat said:
I would ultimately like to become a General Surgeon and then specialize in Cardio Thoracic. With this being said, if I wanted to go down this road. Would it be better for an MD or DO. Overall i mean.
Click to expand...

MD.

Cardiothoracic surgery is a dwindling field. Interventional cardiologists are taken over. Thats another discussion. Chances are you will change your mind a few times over the course of your clinicals, I did.
 
MD pretty much always makes things easier. Although if the trend Vent mentioned continues and you have a genuine interest in cardio thoracic procedures, you would have no problem matching allo IM. From there the playing field is pretty level for getting a fellowship. Or at least that is what I've heard.
 
DrMom said:
there are only 2 osteopathic cardiothoracic fellowships.
Click to expand...


Only two!!! Wow that limits my options greatly if i go downt he DO track and want to become a CT surgreon. Why only two? alot of DO's don't like to go into CT surgery? Or is it b/c CT surgery is a dwindling field?



Akshat
 
docbill said:
Can you get into an MD program? If the answer is YES, then do MD program. It will make it easier to go into Cardio Thorasic Surgery or Cardiac Plastic Surgery.
Click to expand...

Cardiac Plastic Surgery?

Does this mean Ventricular Breast Implants?
 
18 posts in less than 5 hours...and you guys thought you were sick of MD vs. DO threads :barf:

NS
 
Akshat said:
Only two!!! Wow that limits my options greatly if i go downt he DO track and want to become a CT surgreon. Why only two? alot of DO's don't like to go into CT surgery? Or is it b/c CT surgery is a dwindling field?



Akshat
Click to expand...

no it does not limit your options, it in fact gives you two more options since DOs can apply to both allo and osteo programs.
 
A friend of mine and I got accepted to TCOM earlier this month, but my friend wants to specialize in surgery and thinks going to an osteopathic school would hurt his chances of getting into a surgical residency.

Would reapplying to MD schools be better for him?
 
Blue Orchid said:
A friend of mine and I got accepted to TCOM earlier this month, but my friend wants to specialize in surgery and thinks going to an osteopathic school would hurt his chances of getting into a surgical residency.

Would reapplying to MD schools be better for him?
Click to expand...

TCOM is opening a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship of their own in 2006.

Before that is completed, a general surgery residency would need to be done, and these are readily available.
 
From FACOS website:

Training Sites

The ACOS maintains a listing of AOA-approved training sites for osteopathic surgical residents. For a more
current listing or for the number of available positions at each training site, contact the AOA.




Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery Residency Programs


General Surgery Residency Programs


General Vascular Surgery Residency Programs


Neurological Surgery Residency Programs


Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Residency Programs


Urological Surgery Residency Programs


Surgical Critical Care Residency Programs

https://www.facos.org/scriptcontent/educationsites.cfm#cardio
 
Blue Orchid...There are lots of DOs in surgical fields. Check the match lists at TCOM and others. You may have to work a bit harder for it, though. I would probably just stick with TCOM...If the stats are MD-caliber and there is something major that could be done in the next year to improve the app, AND the year doesn't matter you could reapply. Or there's always SMP's, do a search!
 
crys20 said:
Blue Orchid...There are lots of DOs in surgical fields. Check the match lists at TCOM and others. You may have to work a bit harder for it, though. I would probably just stick with TCOM...If the stats are MD-caliber and there is something major that could be done in the next year to improve the app, AND the year doesn't matter you could reapply. Or there's always SMP's, do a search!
Click to expand...


For the medical schools in Texas, you will note that the only nationally ranked schools are Baylor, UT-Southwestern, and TCOM. There are 8 overall schools, and the only D.O. school is one of the top 3.

TCOM is one of the best schools to be at in Texas. You also get dibs over the AOA residencies in Texas, including the upcoming cardiothoracic fellowship opening next year.
 
More, oh god yes! The neverending debate! MDs...DOs, which one is better?!?! 😴

The one preconception I had that proved to be true is that there is less of the gunner mentality. Everyone really does want everyone else to do well around here. I couldn't imagine someone sabotaging my work just so they'd have a better grade...that's how muthafukkas get smoked 'round my hood. 😎

So in that respect, Osteopathic school takes the cake.

NS
 
Akshat said:
I would ultimately like to become a General Surgeon and then specialize in Cardio Thoracic. With this being said, if I wanted to go down this road. Would it be better for an MD or DO. Overall i mean.
Click to expand...
If you stay in the top 10% of your class, first author some research in the field your interested in, and score 95 percentile or above on the USMLE you'll be fine doing either.

Not because you'd be at a disadvantage as one or the other, but because that's what you'll be up against.
 
Blue Orchid said:
A friend of mine and I got accepted to TCOM earlier this month, but my friend wants to specialize in surgery and thinks going to an osteopathic school would hurt his chances of getting into a surgical residency.

Would reapplying to MD schools be better for him?
Click to expand...

The true, honest answers are: yes, and yes. Unfortunately this is still the case. Iserson's book gives the best advice on this and remarks how few DOs "enter into and finish allopathic general surgery residencies". I know that part of this is that fewer DO's go into GS, but surgery is still the last great 'old-boy' stronghold. Women, minorities, DO's...all are at a disadvantage, right or wrong (obviously wrong).
 
Idiopathic said:
Does the closing of JPS make this statement funny? Or just sad?
Click to expand...

Both!

You get all the residencies at Plaza, but yeah.....not that many....it was really aimed at that new Plaza residency, however.
 
jkhamlin said:
Check out this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49577,00.html

I'm sure that they would rather take a US trained DO than foreign medical grads if they can.
Click to expand...



Guys,
This is a good article and but it is a old one. So what has changed in these 2 years since the article was written.
It is the limit on how many hours a resident has to work in a hospital in a week?
They cap it at 80 hours per week. Due to this, in last few years surgery residency has become more competitive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Thoughts on taking STEP 1 vs STEP 2 as a DO student
Replies
10
Views
3K
curiousaboutpod
C
Mr.Smile12
[Article] Being a DO in an MD-heavy field
Replies
9
Views
2K
DO2015CA
DO2015CA
M
DO student, international, and anesthesia
Replies
3
Views
694
Ho0v-man
Ho0v-man
D
RUSM student on MD vs DO
Replies
16
Views
3K
OneKilogramOfFeathers
O
Y
Matching Psych as a DO student
Replies
6
Views
1K
Futureleader2024
Futureleader2024
Top