osteopathic medicine

[kristing]

Originally posted by Mav
DO: mostly rejected MD applicants with subpar MCAT/GPA scores

DO: most common "alternative" to people with lower MCAT scores

DO: schools with students who have lower MCAT/GPA means

DO: COMLEX easier than Steps, MD boards

Simple really. Unless any DO can show me otherwise, that in my book provides the reason why the MD program continues to remain superior.

Too bad patients don't come with multiple choice answers. If they did, this theory would hold water.

If high MCAT scores, undergrad science gpa, and board scores made a good physician then WHY ON EARTH would there be 2 years of clinical rotations, internships and residencies to teach us the real "art" of medicine?

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[mcataz]

I think we have lost sight of this debate. The entire purpose of this debate is to somehow suggest that the MD degree will place you in a better job. The point that MD's make is that the DO degree will inhibit your chances of securing a great residency which will further inhibit your chance at getting hired with a great hospital or multispecialty clinic. The only thing that matters is in the end. The DO physician who earns 400K and is very popular is better than the MD earning 120K who is unpopular.

 

[mcataz]

Do you ever wonder why so many DO's turn out to win amazing awards and positions. I think a lot of it has to do with wanting to prove people wrong. So to you snide MD's who keep putting down DO's, please continue to do so. All you are doing is making DO's better physicians and more money to boot.

 

[mcataz]

If you have read my posts, you know that I support DO's. But I would have to agree with Bechet. I think most students would be lying if they said DO was their first choice. I know of very few students who prefer the osteopathic route to the allopathic route.

Second, I also agree that it's a bunch of b.s how some DO students will claim that they got snubbed because of their life experience. I don't care if you are a former Navy Pilot, Fireman or Hairdresser, if you have around 3.5 GPA and a 30 +MCAT, you will get into an MD school. They aren't going to care what you did if you have high stats.

However, I don't think DO's are permanently crippled like some MD's suggest. If you are an excellent doctor with excellent board scores, they will look past your DO degree. And the institutions that discriminate upon DO's even with excellent scores are probably the same ones who discriminate among MD schools of varying reputation such as the Ivy league schools.

But I agree that some DO's can make up a lot of crap to somehow justify their degree as the same. However, I haven't read any posts on this board that have included such weak arguments. I think OceanDO and the others have done an excellent job clarifying misconceptions about osteopathic medicine.

 

[MD2b06]

Not to add fuel to the fire, but I'm genuinely curious about something. Why are MD's not allowed to apply to D.O. residencies, whereas D.O.'s are allowed to apply to and in many instances secure M.D. residencies? I don't know any M.D. students that've talked of a desire to secure a D.O. residency, but I was just curious why the discrimination against M.D.'s exists in this respect. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Castro Viejo]

Originally posted by MD2b06
Not to add fuel to the fire, but I'm genuinely curious about something. Why are MD's not allowed to apply to D.O. residencies, whereas D.O.'s are allowed to apply to and in many instances secure M.D. residencies? I don't know any M.D. students that've talked of a desire to secure a D.O. residency, but I was just curious why the discrimination against M.D.'s exists in this respect. Any insight would be appreciated.

The American Medical Association, in recognizing that DOs are the professional and legal equivalent of MDs, granted the right to DOs to train in MD residencies in the very recent past. I'll have to look up the exact date. This of course, was not always the case, as DOs up to that point were training in DO residency programs.

Part of the reason for allowing DOs to train in allopathic programs is also due to the fact that osteopathic graduate medical education is somewhat underdeveloped compared to the MD programs. The osteopathic profession was, and still is, very ill-equipped to train its own in osteopathic-based residencies.

As for why MDs don't get to train in osteopathic programs, well, I don't believe that's true. I read of an article about an MD who was doing a residency in OMT at KCOM. I think it was in American Medical News around 1997.

There's also a question of whether or not the osteopathic graduate training programs are up to snuff and whether, after having completed an osteopathic residency, one can find a job.

 

[YellowRose]

Also, i think that many of the DO residencies are also FP, which is a speciality that does use a lot of manipulation. although many DO's don't use OMT after graduation, they do use it, or are required to use it, during residency years. This would be difficult for a professoin that has no background in it. As for the marketablity of a DO residency after graduation, most go into private practice, so i don't know how much of a difference that makes. Most of the time the DO's that you see on faculty at MD university medical centers trained there, but every once in a while you will see a DO fully trained in DO hospitals in on faculty at MD university hospitals, so it does happen.