Please discontinue the derogatory term "allopathic" in this and the pre-med forum.

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Should SDN replace the innacurate and derogatory term "Allopathy" and replace it with "Medicine?"

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  • Should SDN replace the innacurate term "Allopathy" and replace it with "Medicine?"


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VeitVat

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In the regular outside world everyone knows medicine as "medicine," osteopathy in the US is understood to be "osteopathic medicine" and so on. Why is the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" then used to refer to our profession? It could be construed as an attempt at political correctness but in fact is damaging when used in a set of forums geared to the young and less informed candidates as they enter the maze of modern pre-medical and medical education.

Several links for the perplexed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

The term was created by homeopaths, and apparently perpetuated by OMT-centered osteopaths for public relations purposes to refer to modern, science based medicine as "relieving symptoms, not disease."

Science, or evidence-based medicine - the M.D. is just that, and not bound by unalterable dogma as the proponents of the term "allopathy" were.

Conversely, many sites refer to osteopathic medicine as a "holistic approach," but the reality is that our D.O colleagues rightfully emphasize how the only difference between the formal training of an M.D. and D.O. is a class on osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) - and this is generally true. Other differences, such as non-uniformity of clinical training and mandatory AOA membership are more circumstantial and arguably not one wished for by many D.Os. A holistic approach is something all modern education of health sciences has moved towards becoming, it's pretty much the essence of "Family Practice" as a specialty - regardless of whether accredited by the ACGME or AOA.

Could we then please discontinue to perpetuate the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" in a site where your hopefuls who are not yet exposed to the entire world as it really exists and refer to our professions by accurate and non-derogatory terms?

Please relabel the websites terms "Allopathic" to "Medicine" or "Medical" and "Pre-allopathic" to "Pre-medical."

While at it, the term "mid-levels" in this site was replaced by "Clinicians" - another misnomer, as the term refers to anyone from an LPN through M.D. and everyone in between, when in the forums it refers specifically to PAs, NPs and RNs.

"Clinicians" should be accurately renamed to "Physician Assistant, Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners." Those are legitimate professions and there's no need to obfuscate who they are. They are also clearly understood as "Mid-Level Healthcare Professions" by the world at large. there is nothing derogatory in the use of a clear, accurate term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinician

Thank you.

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This sort of reminds me back as an undergrad, one of the feminist groups on campus wrote an article in the campus newspaper centered on referring to things as 'herstory' instead of history. While it made sense to me at the time and I got what they were going for, I learned the word history as a child to pertain to things that happened in the past...not literally as "His Story". But thanks to the feminist group, I now as an adult realize that possible perception of the word....basically by them educating, it sort of did more bad than good in a way for their cause (since the word history isn't being changed any time soon).

Anyway, interesting post. Who'da guessed?
 
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We need the adjectives because DO students and MD students have some different concerns. As a specific example, the concerns regarding getting into certain residencies may be somewhat different between US MDs and DOs. DOs practice medicine just as MDs do. It would be far more derogatory to call allopathic "medicine" while calling osteopathic "osteopathic medicine" than it would be to call MD students allopaths.

I'm an allopathic student and I don't find the term derogatory.
 
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Yep, I realized (actually learned) at the time it was just the group's invented twisting of the word (but not gonna lie, back as an undergrad I looked it up because I wasn't sure. heh).

The main thing is that they got the perception of His Story in my head, even if it wasn't where the word came from.
 
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This sort of reminds me back as an undergrad, one of the feminist groups on campus wrote an article in the campus newspaper centered on referring to things as 'herstory' instead of history.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of, and you fell for it?
 
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I didn't really 'fall' for it. It did make me look up where the word came from though. Again, point being, it did get the perception in my head.

This is so far off the main point of this thread by now (sorry veitvat). lol
 
I get your point, OP, but really...I have better things to worry about. Like actually studying medicine.
 
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Derogatory? Really?

It is for distinctive purposes here.

There is a fun thread on SJWs running somewhere here on SDN which you would probably (not) enjoy
 
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We need the adjectives because DO students and MD students have some different concerns. As a specific example, the concerns regarding getting into certain residencies may be somewhat different between US MDs and DOs. DOs practice medicine just as MDs do. It would be far more derogatory to call allopathic "medicine" while calling osteopathic "osteopathic medicine" than it would be to call MD students allopaths.

I'm an allopathic student and I don't find the term derogatory.


It remains clear and accurate to use terms "Medicine (M.D.)" and "Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.)" when labeling the forums. The "allopathy" term was invented and promoted by proponents of practices other than "medicine." "Osteopathy" on the other hand, was a term created by the D.O. profession and was meant to be descriptive of their identity, not imposed from outside by entities wishing to re-frame the narrative of what "Medicine" actually means.
 
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I believe NSU is creating a "college of allopathic medicine" What percentage of lay people know the term allopathic, let alone it's derogatory origin? Probably approaching zero. Half of millenials I meet don't know differences of MD/DO/PhD etc, but they're sure that all doctors are evil shills for big pharma and don't understand "natural alternatives". Pick your battles.
 
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I remember some feminazis who held "ovulars" because they didn't like the word "seminar" and its word origins shared with "semen".

And to OP, allopath is a descriptor. It's a word. Nothing more. Deal with it.

Err. Except that is not in any way where the word "history" comes from. It doesn't mean "his" story. It is derived from a greek root.
 
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Lets be honest here. What percentage of DO students, if they had the credentials, would still choose DO if they were accepted into a non-IMG MD program?
 
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Lets be honest here. What percentage of DO students, if they had the credentials, would still choose DO if they were accepted into a non-IMG MD program?
What does that have to do with anything?
Jeez, we're in here telling OP to pick their battles and you're trying to start a war with no purpose.
 
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Could we then please discontinue to perpetuate the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" in a site where your hopefuls who are not yet exposed to the entire world as it really exists and refer to our professions by accurate and non-derogatory terms?

I have to say, it don't think about the terms osteopathic versus allopathic being derogatory, primarily because in a clinical sense, there really is no difference so the terms are irrelevant. Most patients probably feel the same too. Additionally, they are different schools with different degrees (though the accreditation distinction is being lost).

That being said, if you think an anonymous forum on the Internet is the place to appeal to people's senses, you're probably going to be disappointed.
 
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Lets be honest here. What percentage of DO students, if they had the credentials, would still choose DO if they were accepted into a non-IMG MD program?
:hijacked::troll::troll::troll::troll::troll::troll::troll:
 
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There's no reason to go into hysterics. See what I did there?
This sort of reminds me back as an undergrad, one of the feminist groups on campus wrote an article in the campus newspaper centered on referring to things as 'herstory' instead of history. While it made sense to me at the time and I got what they were going for, I learned the word history as a child to pertain to things that happened in the past...not literally as "His Story". But thanks to the feminist group, I now as an adult realize that possible perception of the word....basically by them educating, it sort of did more bad than good in a way for their cause (since the word history isn't being changed any time soon).

Anyway, interesting post. Who'da guessed?
 
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There's no reason to go into hysterics. See what I did there?
That's OK...since we're ignoring the real roots of the words, this becomes his-terics aka associated with men and their irrationality. It's super feminist!
#yesIknowtheroots
 
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Would it be sufficient to include a trigger warning preceding use of the word "allopathic," or do we need to eliminate use of the word completely in order to maintain SDN as a safe space? Please provide instructions on how offenders can best check their DO privilege.
 
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Would it be sufficient to include a trigger warning preceding use of the word "allopathic," or do we need to eliminate use of the word completely in order to maintain SDN as a safe space? Please provide instructions on how offenders can best check their DO privilege.
See, that's just not the same thing. Trigger warnings ≠ eliminating words or topics, though the two are often conflated in the media right now.
 
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Lets be honest here. What percentage of DO students, if they had the credentials, would still choose DO if they were accepted into a non-IMG MD program?

That happened in California in 1961.

The Osteopathic medical board in California proposed and gained approval to merge with the California Medical Association and convert their D.O.'s to M.D.'s. The vast majority of D.O.'s DID switch their degrees, the one D.O school in California at the time, the California College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons dropped OMT and was renamed California College of Medicine (which three years later was absorbed by the University of California to become what we know today as UC, Irvine.
 
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In the regular outside world everyone knows medicine as "medicine," osteopathy in the US is understood to be "osteopathic medicine" and so on. Why is the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" then used to refer to our profession? It could be construed as an attempt at political correctness but in fact is damaging when used in a set of forums geared to the young and less informed candidates as they enter the maze of modern pre-medical and medical education.

Several links for the perplexed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

The term was created by homeopaths, and apparently perpetuated by OMT-centered osteopaths for public relations purposes to refer to modern, science based medicine as "relieving symptoms, not disease."

Science, or evidence-based medicine - the M.D. is just that, and not bound by unalterable dogma as the proponents of the term "allopathy" were.

Conversely, many sites refer to osteopathic medicine as a "holistic approach," but the reality is that our D.O colleagues rightfully emphasize how the only difference between the formal training of an M.D. and D.O. is a class on osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) - and this is generally true. Other differences, such as non-uniformity of clinical training and mandatory AOA membership are more circumstantial and arguably not one wished for by many D.Os. A holistic approach is something all modern education of health sciences has moved towards becoming, it's pretty much the essence of "Family Practice" as a specialty - regardless of whether accredited by the ACGME or AOA.

Could we then please discontinue to perpetuate the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" in a site where your hopefuls who are not yet exposed to the entire world as it really exists and refer to our professions by accurate and non-derogatory terms?

Please relabel the websites terms "Allopathic" to "Medicine" or "Medical" and "Pre-allopathic" to "Pre-medical."

While at it, the term "mid-levels" in this site was replaced by "Clinicians" - another misnomer, as the term refers to anyone from an LPN through M.D. and everyone in between, when in the forums it refers specifically to PAs, NPs and RNs.

"Clinicians" should be accurately renamed to "Physician Assistant, Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners." Those are legitimate professions and there's no need to obfuscate who they are. They are also clearly understood as "Mid-Level Healthcare Professions" by the world at large. there is nothing derogatory in the use of a clear, accurate term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinician

Thank you.

You're absolutely right but this has been brought up before and it is basically a non-starter. It's unfortunate you spent so much time writing this post. The inclusion of the term "allopathic" in this website is likely a not-so-subtle dig at MDs by the founder of this site (@Lee) who is a DO. If the forums were created in a logical manner there would be "Pre-Medical" and "Medical Student" forum with "Osteopathic" subforums in both. Instead the website is layed out in a completely illogical manner so as not to bruise the fragile egos of the site's DO founder who couldn't possibly allow osteo to be a subforum.
 
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You're absolutely right but this has been brought up before and it is basically a non-starter. It's unfortunate you spent so much time writing this post. The inclusion of the term "allopathic" in this website is likely a not-so-subtle dig at MDs by the founder of this site who is a DO. If the forums were created in a logical manner there would be "Pre-Medical" and "Medical Student" forum with "Osteopathic" subforums in both. Instead the website is layed out in a completely illogical manner so as not to bruise the fragile egos of the site's DO founder who couldn't possibly allow osteo to be a subforum.

Thank you. It all makes perfect sense now.

Thought it was worth attempting to bring some sense, but if you're correct then it's like trying to launch a blue initiative in red country or a red initiative in blue city.
 
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Thank you. It all makes perfect sense now.

Thought it was worth attempting to bring some sense, but if you're correct then it's like trying to launch a blue initiative in red country or a red initiative in blue city.
Did you not know that?

I don't really care what a website chooses to label its forums, as long as I enjoy the discourse on said forums. I consider it a nice thing that they included separate sections to begin with, especially as the people who put in the work to found SDN were DOs, and the MDs, NPs, PAs, etcs are just along for the ride.
 
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Well, for an osteopathic centered site, the M.D. and pre-M.D. forums get significantly more traffic than the D.O. forums and sub-forums, thus so much as who's on whose ride. I wonder why not simply call it OSDN, osteopathic student doctor network. But dropping the osteopathic from the title, just emphasizing the doctor part? I'm sure it's simply for traffic purposes and not a tacit approval of California 1961.
 
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Well, for an osteopathic centered site, the M.D. and pre-M.D. forums get significantly more traffic than the D.O. forums and sub-forums, thus so much as who's on whose ride. I wonder why not simply call it OSDN, osteopathic student doctor network. But dropping the osteopathic from the title, just emphasizing the doctor part? I'm sure it's simply for traffic purposes.
I don't think everything has to have a hidden agenda.

Someone wanted to make a site where med students and those wanting to be med students could talk to each other and give advice. Cool, Student Doctor Network. They were DO, so they were sure to include an area where those students could voice DO-specific concerns...that doesn't mean the site was meant only for those students, or should have a name that would imply as much. As time went on, other groups (residents, midlevels, military, non-traditional students) wanted subforums and got them. I don't see the problem, other than that yeah some people don't like Allopathic as a descriptor and that kind of sucks if it bugs them.
 
In the regular outside world everyone knows medicine as "medicine," osteopathy in the US is understood to be "osteopathic medicine" and so on. Why is the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" then used to refer to our profession? It could be construed as an attempt at political correctness but in fact is damaging when used in a set of forums geared to the young and less informed candidates as they enter the maze of modern pre-medical and medical education.

Several links for the perplexed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopathic_medicine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

The term was created by homeopaths, and apparently perpetuated by OMT-centered osteopaths for public relations purposes to refer to modern, science based medicine as "relieving symptoms, not disease."

Science, or evidence-based medicine - the M.D. is just that, and not bound by unalterable dogma as the proponents of the term "allopathy" were.

Conversely, many sites refer to osteopathic medicine as a "holistic approach," but the reality is that our D.O colleagues rightfully emphasize how the only difference between the formal training of an M.D. and D.O. is a class on osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) - and this is generally true. Other differences, such as non-uniformity of clinical training and mandatory AOA membership are more circumstantial and arguably not one wished for by many D.Os. A holistic approach is something all modern education of health sciences has moved towards becoming, it's pretty much the essence of "Family Practice" as a specialty - regardless of whether accredited by the ACGME or AOA.

Could we then please discontinue to perpetuate the inaccurate and derogatory term "allopathy" in a site where your hopefuls who are not yet exposed to the entire world as it really exists and refer to our professions by accurate and non-derogatory terms?

Please relabel the websites terms "Allopathic" to "Medicine" or "Medical" and "Pre-allopathic" to "Pre-medical."

While at it, the term "mid-levels" in this site was replaced by "Clinicians" - another misnomer, as the term refers to anyone from an LPN through M.D. and everyone in between, when in the forums it refers specifically to PAs, NPs and RNs.

"Clinicians" should be accurately renamed to "Physician Assistant, Nurses, and Nurse Practitioners." Those are legitimate professions and there's no need to obfuscate who they are. They are also clearly understood as "Mid-Level Healthcare Professions" by the world at large. there is nothing derogatory in the use of a clear, accurate term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinician

Thank you.

You are assuming too much.

It will remain allopathic and osteopathic and pre-allo/pre-osteo until there is not a different degree (e.g. MD, DO). Likewise, clinicians encompasses PA/NP/RN. Further, RN is not an MLP.
 
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I don't think everything has to have a hidden agenda.

Someone wanted to make a site where med students and those wanting to be med students could talk to each other and give advice. Cool, Student Doctor Network. They were DO, so they were sure to include an area where those students could voice DO-specific concerns...that doesn't mean the site was meant only for those students, or should have a name that would imply as much. As time went on, other groups (residents, midlevels, military, non-traditional students) wanted subforums and got them. I don't see the problem, other than that yeah some people don't like Allopathic as a descriptor and that kind of sucks if it bugs them.

Cool story but it doesn't have any basis in reality. If you look at SDN's own telling of its history: "The SDN forums were originally hosted as the Osteopathic.com student forums." (see below for more details) So yes, the site was explicitly meant only for osteopathic students when it started and the original name implied exactly that. I'm sure one of the principle reasons it was expanded to include the majority group of med students (US MDs or "allopaths" as they are only called on this website) was to garner more traffic and more advertising $$$.

As I said the reason this website is set up in such an illogical manner and the derogatory term "allopathic" is being used is precisely because this website was originally meant as an osteopath-only forum created by someone "in the cult of Still".

Source: http://www.studentdoctor.net/about-sdn/our-history/

Additional info:
"Osteopathic.com was created in 1995 by Lee Burnett during medical school. It was originally known as “The Osteopathic Source” and was an offshoot of the Osteopathic medical student newspaper The Osteopathic Pulse. The Osteopathic Source was the first Osteopathic medical student website and the first osteopathic website on the Internet."
 
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Cool story but it doesn't have any basis in reality. If you look at SDN's own telling of its history: "The SDN forums were originally hosted as the Osteopathic.com student forums." (see below for more details) So yes, the site was explicitly meant only for osteopathic students when it started and the original name implied exactly that. I'm sure one of the principle reasons it was expanded to include the majority group of med students (US MDs or "allopaths" as they are only called on this website) was to garner more traffic and more advertising $$$.

As I said the reason this website is set up in such an illogical manner and the derogatory term "allopathic" is being used is precisely because this website was originally meant as an osteopath-only forum created by someone "in the cult of Still".

Source: http://www.studentdoctor.net/about-sdn/our-history/

Additional info:
"Osteopathic.com was created in 1995 by Lee Burnett during medical school. It was originally known as “The Osteopathic Source” and was an offshoot of the Osteopathic medical student newspaper The Osteopathic Pulse. The Osteopathic Source was the first Osteopathic medical student website and the first osteopathic website on the Internet."
Cool, thanks for that info. I still fail to see any real difference between the two...the point is really that the site was set up by a DO, and the name 'Student Doctor Network' was chosen at some point so that it included both groups. Allo/Osteo persist as labels to differentiate those two. I, for one, am grateful enough that both are on here, whatever the etymology of the descriptors or the motivation for including MD students, because this site has been a helpful resource for me and many others. I get that 'Allopathic' was originally an attempt to deride MD physicians, but that doesn't seem to have worked out too well so I really can't be bothered to care.
 
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Literally the only people in the world who could possibly care are right here in this forum o_O
 
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Cool story but it doesn't have any basis in reality. If you look at SDN's own telling of its history: "The SDN forums were originally hosted as the Osteopathic.com student forums." (see below for more details) So yes, the site was explicitly meant only for osteopathic students when it started and the original name implied exactly that. I'm sure one of the principle reasons it was expanded to include the majority group of med students (US MDs or "allopaths" as they are only called on this website) was to garner more traffic and more advertising $$$.

As I said the reason this website is set up in such an illogical manner and the derogatory term "allopathic" is being used is precisely because this website was originally meant as an osteopath-only forum created by someone "in the cult of Still".

Source: http://www.studentdoctor.net/about-sdn/our-history/

Additional info:
"Osteopathic.com was created in 1995 by Lee Burnett during medical school. It was originally known as “The Osteopathic Source” and was an offshoot of the Osteopathic medical student newspaper The Osteopathic Pulse. The Osteopathic Source was the first Osteopathic medical student website and the first osteopathic website on the Internet."

The fact that I read "the IMSLounge moved to GeoCities" and know what GeoCities is...makes me feel old.

I bet a large portion of people on this forum never experienced the amazingness that was GeoCities. So many animated .gifs and backgrounds that were hurtful to the eyes...
 
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How long has it been since anyone used "allopathic" in a derogatory manner? Reminds me of the uw guy who warned people about using "lame" to avoid offending disabled people
 
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This sort of reminds me back as an undergrad, one of the feminist groups on campus wrote an article in the campus newspaper centered on referring to things as 'herstory' instead of history. While it made sense to me at the time and I got what they were going for, I learned the word history as a child to pertain to things that happened in the past...not literally as "His Story". But thanks to the feminist group, I now as an adult realize that possible perception of the word....basically by them educating, it sort of did more bad than good in a way for their cause (since the word history isn't being changed any time soon).

Anyway, interesting post. Who'da guessed?

My friend also thought about "history" and "herstory". He was also really ****ing high at the time.
 
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Cool, thanks for that info. I still fail to see any real difference between the two...the point is really that the site was set up by a DO, and the name 'Student Doctor Network' was chosen at some point so that it included both groups. Allo/Osteo persist as labels to differentiate those two. I, for one, am grateful enough that both are on here, whatever the etymology of the descriptors or the motivation for including MD students, because this site has been a helpful resource for me and many others. I get that 'Allopathic' was originally an attempt to deride MD physicians, but that doesn't seem to have worked out too well so I really can't be bothered to care.

You're exactly right, it isn't a big deal. But MeatTornado can't resist the opportunity to talk down about DOs, so here we are.
 
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I'm ok with this. I think that as a whole the only people who actually use allopathic physician are hardcore DOs who won't really be around for much longer and non-physician pretend doctors.

As a whole due to recent pushes by alternative care providers to put themselves on par with physicians we should do what we can to remove any adjective terminology from any practicing doctor, osteopathic or cough * allopathic* to signal out that there are physicians and non-physicians.
 
You're exactly right, it isn't a big deal. But MeatTornado can't resist the opportunity to talk down about DOs, so here we are.

idk why ppl take him all that serious. He has his social/cognitive unaware moments. Smile and ignore them. You'll be doing it for plenty of your patients one day too.
 
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My goodness people, how many MD vs DO threads do we need in Allo? And then y'all complain about pre-allo.
 
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My goodness people, how many MD vs DO threads do we need in Allo? And then y'all complain about pre-allo.

min 5 active ones.
2 must emphasize the importance of DOs not being able to match outside of FM.
1 must emphasize how we will steal all of the DO skittles.
 
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Cool story but it doesn't have any basis in reality. If you look at SDN's own telling of its history: "The SDN forums were originally hosted as the Osteopathic.com student forums." (see below for more details) So yes, the site was explicitly meant only for osteopathic students when it started and the original name implied exactly that. I'm sure one of the principle reasons it was expanded to include the majority group of med students (US MDs or "allopaths" as they are only called on this website) was to garner more traffic and more advertising $$$.

As I said the reason this website is set up in such an illogical manner and the derogatory term "allopathic" is being used is precisely because this website was originally meant as an osteopath-only forum created by someone "in the cult of Still".

Source: http://www.studentdoctor.net/about-sdn/our-history/

Additional info:
"Osteopathic.com was created in 1995 by Lee Burnett during medical school. It was originally known as “The Osteopathic Source” and was an offshoot of the Osteopathic medical student newspaper The Osteopathic Pulse. The Osteopathic Source was the first Osteopathic medical student website and the first osteopathic website on the Internet."
Easiest way to change it would simply be to make it "Pre-MD" and "Pre-DO." As to why the forums were changed- money has little to do with it. The website operates as a non-profit and all excess money generated goes to scholarships offered by the parent organization. The expanded scope was, from the tellings I have heard, merely to make a better site. There is plenty on here that doesn't generate much, if any, traffic or revenue, but it's just here to be a resource (such as many of the lesser-used and hidden specialty subforums). Some people just want to make something great to give back, ya know?
 
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I don't see allopath or osteopath as derogatory words. I may come from a hippy part of the country but I have had a few older MDs introduce themselves as allopaths when they saw my osteopathic college shirt at my hometown's farmers market lol.. fwiw they were all family docs that live up in the foothills and love OMT themselves.
 
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One has to admire their ruthlessness!


That happened in California in 1961.

The Osteopathic medical board in California proposed and gained approval to merge with the California Medical Association and convert their D.O.'s to M.D.'s. The vast majority of D.O.'s DID switch their degrees, the one D.O school in California at the time, the California College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons dropped OMT and was renamed California College of Medicine (which three years later was absorbed by the University of California to become what we know today as UC, Irvine.
 
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It might be easier if we just stick with calling both of them simply "providers" :naughty:
 
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I don't see allopath or osteopath as derogatory words. I may come from a hippy part of the country but I have had a few older MDs introduce themselves as allopaths when they saw my osteopathic college shirt at my hometown's farmers market lol.. fwiw they were all family docs that live up in the foothills and love OMT themselves.

The truth is that while it was created by the founder of Homeopathy as a derogatory term for traditional physicians (i.e. MDs), its kind of been appropriated by the MD community, and essentially has lost its derogatory meaning among virtually everyone. If you look in writings by major MD organization, they all use allopathic at some point or another to refer to themselves.

Its really a non-issue, and implying that its use on this website is some underhanded jab at MDs by the DO founder is kind of ludicrous. This site was created to help students and physicians share info and resources. Sure it started out as an osteopathic resource, but with its growth it sought to be a resource for all "student doctors". Really don't think Lee had huge ulterior motives on that one.
 
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lot of passion for something that very few people care about....
 
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I would hope that this website attracts students/members who are mature enough to not only not be offended by the terms, but to appreciate the uniqueness of the terms.
Also as medically engaged students they would hopefully have the curiosity to look into the difference between MD and DO and learn from this.

If we this really is a pressing issue, a simple solution would be to just add MD and DO at the end of both sections?
 
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That happened in California in 1961.

The Osteopathic medical board in California proposed and gained approval to merge with the California Medical Association and convert their D.O.'s to M.D.'s. The vast majority of D.O.'s DID switch their degrees, the one D.O school in California at the time, the California College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons dropped OMT and was renamed California College of Medicine (which three years later was absorbed by the University of California to become what we know today as UC, Irvine.

You realize this occurred because California decided to outlaw the DO degree in their state and gave any DOs the opportunity to become an MD when they realized they'd be losing a large chunk of their physicians, right? It had nothing to do with DOs wanting to become MDs, it had to do with the fact that if they didn't change their credentials they wouldn't have legally been allowed to keep practicing medicine in California. Tell all the MDs in the state that they either have to change the letters after their name to DO or stop practicing medicine and I guarantee most will of the MDs would switch to DOs too.
 
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In a different vein, but somewhat similar issue, I hate whenever a D.O. commits a crime that is reported in the news, the reporter often sees the need to describe the individual as an osteopath. But if an M.D. commits a crime, the story refers to them as a physician. There always seems to be that built-in prejudice. Just an observation.
 
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You are assuming too much.

It will remain allopathic and osteopathic and pre-allo/pre-osteo until there is not a different degree (e.g. MD, DO). Likewise, clinicians encompasses PA/NP/RN. Further, RN is not an MLP.

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on renaming these forums simply as MD Student Forums and DO Student Forums (and premed counterparts as pre-MD and pre-DO)? We maintain the same differences but remove underlying stereotypes regarding terminology
 
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