Osteopaths in Allopathic Programs

[freddydpt]

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My gf might be applying to psych... I'm wondering if there are any DO's out there who have interviewed at the Maryland programs? Have any DO's seen any bias in the psych world?

 

[PsychedUp]

Some thoughts...

1. One of my med school classmates matched at UM/Sheppard Pratt for residency.

2. My experience as a DO in psychiatry has been entirely positive. I'm now a child/adolescent fellow, and the only DO in the psychiatry program (general and fellowship programs combined) where I am training. That said, my midwest program is quite open to DO candidates and has had several in the past.

3. Most of my colleagues and attendings 'forget' or are unaware I'm a DO (maybe this would be more obvious in a specialty in which OMT could be more readily incorporated). I don't see any discrimination at all.

As has been discussed ad nauseum, the DO/MD difference debate tapers quite a bit in residency. After reaching that point, most only care about how well you do your job and get along with colleagues and patients.

Medical students I teach are the most in tune to my status as a DO, and that only comes up frequently due to their asking 'did you do med school here?' and my response indicating my osteopathic medical training.

4. As with other specialties, you may be screened out from certain 'prestige' institutions as a DO residency applicant, however...

5. The current president of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a DO...

 

[notdeadyet]

5. The current president of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a DO...

He's my advisor on a project I'm working on. He's one of the finest physicians I've met of any specialty. Great guy and in addition to being head of AACAP, he's top dog at one of the best autism centers in the world. Osteopathic medicine didn't seem to hurt him any.

 

[BORNagainSTDENT]

Some thoughts...


4. As with other specialties, you may be screened out from certain 'prestige' institutions as a DO residency applicant, however...

can you elaborate on that please. The reason I ask is I heard the same about SGU or ross grads.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

nothing to elaborate on, really. Some residency programs care about 'pedigree'. I'd wager that there'd be less stigma associated with DO school than there is with a carribean school. I don't know much about DOs in psychiatry, but that's certainly the case with regard to other specialties.

Some programs look with disdain upon anyone who didn't go to medical school at an ivy (or other equally old/monied/prestigious university). Some look askance at DOs. And others look down on carribean school graduates.

They basically think they can tell more about an applicant by where they got into medical school than what they did while they were in medical school. *shrug*

 

[HCE]

nothing to elaborate on, really. Some residency programs care about 'pedigree'. I'd wager that there'd be less stigma associated with DO school than there is with a carribean school. I don't know much about DOs in psychiatry, but that's certainly the case with regard to other specialties.

Some programs look with disdain upon anyone who didn't go to medical school at an ivy (or other equally old/monied/prestigious university). Some look askance at DOs. And others look down on carribean school graduates.

They basically think they can tell more about an applicant by where they got into medical school than what they did while they were in medical school. *shrug*

Agreed on the "pedigree" comment. Take Columbia as an example. They will not consider anyone with a DO degree. If you're the chief architect of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, you may be okay. As Bill Maher would say, I kid Columbia out of love.

http://www.feedage.com/feeds/1644055/nyt--radovan-karadzic

 

[PsychedUp]

nothing to elaborate on, really. Some residency programs care about 'pedigree'. I'd wager that there'd be less stigma associated with DO school than there is with a carribean school. I don't know much about DOs in psychiatry, but that's certainly the case with regard to other specialties.

Some programs look with disdain upon anyone who didn't go to medical school at an ivy (or other equally old/monied/prestigious university). Some look askance at DOs. And others look down on carribean school graduates.

They basically think they can tell more about an applicant by where they got into medical school than what they did while they were in medical school. *shrug*

Well said, and I can't add much else. In life, there is always someone who 'outranks' the others. Fortunately, often the person who believes he/she 'outranks' the others is the only one who thinks this way.

Without getting into this issue further (you can search SDN and find tons of threads on U.S MD vs. DO vs. Carribean), there are arbitrary limitations in that exist in medicine and some institutions follow them (whether this means no interviews for Caribbean or DO grads, non top-tier MD, board score cutoffs, inability to carry a tune, applicant BMI cutoffs, what have you). 😀