Ophthalmology

[lacrosse87]

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Hey, I will be applying to osteopathic medical schools next summer and was wondering how the opportunities are for both osteopathic and allopathic Ophthalmology residencies for osteopathic graduates. I love the field and any details/info you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

A few specific questions I have are:
1) Do some or all schools have electives in the 1st and 2nd year that pertain to ophthalmology?
2) Are you able to rotate in ophthalmology as a 3rd or 4th year in general? Is it a school specific thing?
3) Are allopathic ophthalmology residencies relatively open to osteopathic graduates?
4) Can I have some information on which osteopathic residencies are particularly more research oriented or clinical oriented? Or any with a very good balance?

Feel free to answer whatever. Again, any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Hey, I will be applying to osteopathic medical schools next summer and was wondering how the opportunities are for both osteopathic and allopathic Ophthalmology residencies for osteopathic graduates. I love the field and any details/info you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

A few specific questions I have are:
1) Do some or all schools have electives in the 1st and 2nd year that pertain to ophthalmology? Yes.
2) Are you able to rotate in ophthalmology as a 3rd or 4th year in general? Is it a school specific thing? Same question as 1.
3) Are allopathic ophthalmology residencies relatively open to osteopathic graduates? All are open however there are many that haven't accepted one in their history.
4) Can I have some information on which osteopathic residencies are particularly more research oriented or clinical oriented? Or any with a very good balance? Too broad a question.

Feel free to answer whatever. Again, any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I would like to say Optho is a hard residency to get into. There are a few DO's like Jred who would tell you that if Optho is your dream then you should avoid DO schools.
However since you will 99.9999% change your mind a few times in medical school I wouldn't worry about looking at residencies until you're actually in medical school.

 

[MightyMoose]

Hey, I will be applying to osteopathic medical schools next summer and was wondering how the opportunities are for both osteopathic and allopathic Ophthalmology residencies for osteopathic graduates. I love the field and any details/info you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

A few specific questions I have are:
1) Do some or all schools have electives in the 1st and 2nd year that pertain to ophthalmology?
2) Are you able to rotate in ophthalmology as a 3rd or 4th year in general? Is it a school specific thing?
3) Are allopathic ophthalmology residencies relatively open to osteopathic graduates?
4) Can I have some information on which osteopathic residencies are particularly more research oriented or clinical oriented? Or any with a very good balance?

Feel free to answer whatever. Again, any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1) They have electives you can use for what you want. But most of 3rd year is core rotations (IM, FM, Psych, Surgery, etc.). Some schools offer electives third year, others don't. 4th year is variable as well. Some offer 4 rotations of electives and others offer a whole year for electives.

2) Yes, but you will most likely need to arrange this yourself.

3) NO! People can say yes all they want, but if you match into an allopathic optho residency as a DO you are reaching God level status. You will more than likely NOT be matching into an allopathic optho residency (just the reality of the situation).

4) If you want optho and don't want to do an AOA residency, you should try to get into an Allo program (more specifically an Ivy program or one with good optho connections like Jefferson). In terms of research, you won't find much of it at most DO programs. It's there, but you really have to search it out. You could always do research at an allo program while you attend an Osteo program. I don't know why more people don't do this, but I know plenty of PI's that would be open to it.

Moral of the story: Optho for DO's is pretty limited to AOA residencies, but who cares if you really want optho. Whether you apply as an MD or a DO, Optho is not an easy match. It's one of the most competitive specialties out there.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Dr. Saib (a SDN member) matched allopathic Ophthalmology out of PCOM a few years back. If you want ACGME Ophthalmology, I'd personally go US MD. However, keep a few things in mind:

1. There are AOA (DO only) Ophthalmology programs
2. Who knows what you will want 5 years down the road. Could still be ophthalmology (God I hate spelling that word), could be something completely different. Worry about getting into medical school for now. Apply smart, interview well, pick a place where you will succeed, then move on to these other steps.

Also, read up on the current state of Oph ... it's my understanding that it's not quite the deal it used to be (money and saturation wise). If that's what you're interested in (which at this stage, it probably isn't).