Osteopathic ophthalmology training

[OPPforlife]

Disclaimer: this thread is not intended to ensue a flame war between DOs and MDs. I absolutely respect osteopathic medical training and view there medical school training as equivalent.

Hello all just something I was wondering as I read some of the responses on a previous thread pertaining to NYC programs and their surgical experience and clinical exposure. Does any body seem to know what DO training in ophth is like? Read a few threads on here and on the osteo boards and it seems like a lot of them are community programs but what I'm wondering is what kind of surgical and clinical exposure do these programs offer? I am of course an MD and applied to MD residency and I can tell you that even the programs on the bottom of my list were univ affiliates. This meant that pretty much all had adequate exposure, and mind you I was an average applicant at best. I guess my question is, have any of you guys/gals heard any thing about DO training? Is the surgical and clinical exposure similar to MD programs? And if not similar...how vastly different is it?


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[russiandoc]

There is great variation between the ophth osteo programs. The one thing they all have in common is that they are not major university programs, will likely not have all the subspecialties on full time staff (some have none) , the surgical numbers are likely much lower than most MD programs as they are not affiliated with VA's usually (where we get most of our numbers on the MD side). I believe there are one or two programs in Michigan that are the most desirable on the DO side. Pretty vague but I'm also not sure why you're asking.

 

[ophthope]

Pretty vague but I'm also not sure why you're asking.

Maybe he has a D.O. friend? I know a few D.O. students and I've always wondered what I can tell them about their programs. It would be nice to give them some sort of opinion instead of just the brutally honest "as a D.O. you're going to have a really hard / almost impossible time matching Ophtho."

 

[pathologyDO]

Maybe he has a D.O. friend? I know a few D.O. students and I've always wondered what I can tell them about their programs. It would be nice to give them some sort of opinion instead of just the brutally honest "as a D.O. you're going to have a really hard / almost impossible time matching Ophtho."

On a serious note though, how much more difficult would it be to match into ophtho as a D.O.? Can anyone give us some info on this? The mid-size city I'm from has 3 local ophtho D.O.s in both PP and a hospital setting. Although they're ridiculously outnumbered, it still tells me that the chances are better than almost impossible...

anyone?

 

[ophthope]

On a serious note though, how much more difficult would it be to match into ophtho as a D.O.? Can anyone give us some info on this? The mid-size city I'm from has 3 local ophtho D.O.s in both PP and a hospital setting. Although they're ridiculously outnumbered, it still tells me that the chances are better than almost impossible...

anyone?

I was being serious with my original comment. I didn't mean for it to sound joking, as I really do have friends in their M2 and M3 years at D.O. programs and they ask about Ophthalmology and other fields occasionally from an MD-program-acceptance standpoint.

I think there are like 5 D.O.s in ACGME Ophthalmology residency programs right now. It really is near impossible to get in. Once we're in residency programs we get a good look behind the scenes at the selection process. I can tell you from talking to my colleagues that at many programs (not just Ophthalmology) if you're a D.O. and you didn't do an away rotation with the program, or you did do one and didn't stand out, your application gets passed over. That's it. I'm not saying that's how my own program is, but for many many programs that's the cold hard truth of it. For derm? Even worse from what I hear. It's a tough barrier for a D.O. to get through.

 

[pathologyDO]

I was being serious with my original comment. I didn't mean for it to sound joking, as I really do have friends in their M2 and M3 years at D.O. programs and they ask about Ophthalmology and other fields occasionally from an MD-program-acceptance standpoint.

I think there are like 5 D.O.s in ACGME Ophthalmology residency programs right now. It really is near impossible to get in. Once we're in residency programs we get a good look behind the scenes at the selection process. I can tell you from talking to my colleagues that at many programs (not just Ophthalmology) if you're a D.O. and you didn't do an away rotation with the program, or you did do one and didn't stand out, your application gets passed over. That's it. I'm not saying that's how my own program is, but for many many programs that's the cold hard truth of it. For derm? Even worse from what I hear. It's a tough barrier for a D.O. to get through.

I wasn't trying to make it seem as you weren't being serious, sorry.

Can you speak to the AOA funded ophtho residencies? Do they provide good training?

 

[ophthope]

Can you speak to the AOA funded ophtho residencies? Do they provide good training?

No personal experience at all, hopefully someone can comment. Here's an old thread in the DO forums about them though that should shed some light. As you can see, the surgical number are mostly worrisome. Most places don't have all the sub-specialties covered. Compare that to ACGME programs: I didn't interview anywhere with surgical numbers close to our ACGME minimum. I also didn't interview anywhere that didn't have all of the subspecialties covered. I think one place knew that they were going to lose their Peds Ophtho person and they already had someone lined up to fill the spot. Vastly different training experience.