Podiatrist to MD/DO

[mommyfootdoc]

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I’m a 34-year-old podiatrist with two young children. I have several reasons for wanting to switch to medicine that I will not disclose here. My colleagues, both in podiatry, and other specialties have been very supportive of my desire to become an allopathic or osteopathic physician. My husband and his family who help with our kids are on board as well.

Here are my stats:
BS - cGPA 3.5, sGPA 3.4
Pod - cGPA 3.75
Top 10% of pod class, multiple scholarships and awards
NIH research grant that yielded one poster during pod school
One paper and two posters during residency
MCAT - took after accepted to pod school and scored a 20 (9 verbal) without studying and without Ochem 2. I also had been bit by a lab rat one week prior and could only type with three fingers on my dominant hand. Who knows if that affected my score.
12000 hours clinical experience during residency
8000 hours experience since graduating
I have not shadowed yet but thankfully have many connections in all specialties (MD and DO)

Here are my questions:

1. My prereqs date back to 2005. I never took Ochem 2. Do I have to retake the traditional prereqs? Should I retake all of them or only high yield subjects? Obviously retaking them would help me succeed on my MCAT. Will credits from a CC be frowned upon? Would a SMP be more appropriate?
2. At some point I will have to quit my job to focus on applying to med school. Should I look into clinical experience that is not podiatry in the year or two leading up to my application cycle? Any suggestions on what to look for? I am way overqualified for many traditional premed jobs (MA, CNA, etc). I could scribe but those jobs seem difficult to find.
3. Non-trads that work in healthcare: Did you keep your license active during the application process so that you have something to fall back on? I feel like once I leave podiatry I will have a hard time returning (plus the job market here is abysmal and heavily saturated).
4. I feel like a LOR from current MD/DO colleagues would be more meaningful than a committee or science professor letter. Who wrote your letters?

Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[nlax30]

Just curious, what field/specialty are you looking/thinking of eventually going into? Leaving foot/ankle/ortho altogether or planning on going Ortho route?

 

[mommyfootdoc]

Just curious, what field/specialty are you looking/thinking of eventually going into? Leaving foot/ankle/ortho altogether or planning on going Ortho route?

One of my many reasons for leaving is that I can not physically handle surgery. I love operating but I do not know how much longer my body can take it. I am considering internal medicine and family medicine. I need to research PM&R and neurology more. I work with alongside my internal medicine colleagues regularly and have a preference for that field.

 

[paradoxic_toxic]

What I write below applies to DO schools... who seem to love nontrads and career switchers more than our MD counterparts.

1. My prereqs date back to 2005. I never took Ochem 2. Do I have to retake the traditional prereqs? Should I retake all of them or only high yield subjects? Obviously retaking them would help me succeed on my MCAT. Will credits from a CC be frowned upon? Would a SMP be more appropriate?

For the majority of schools, pre-reqs do not expire. Some schools will allow orgo 2 to be replaced by biochemistry. Some schools don't need orgo 2 at all. With your academic excellence podiatry school, I'm willing to bet there are schools that will be lenient towards your application.

2. At some point I will have to quit my job to focus on applying to med school. Should I look into clinical experience that is not podiatry in the year or two leading up to my application cycle? Any suggestions on what to look for? I am way overqualified for many traditional premed jobs (MA, CNA, etc). I could scribe but those jobs seem difficult to find.

You already work side-by-side with MDs/DOs on a professional level--something that all premeds can only dream of. Your experience in healthcare trumps every other form of clinical experience, so I wouldn't bother.

4. I feel like a LOR from current MD/DO colleagues would be more meaningful than a committee or science professor letter. Who wrote your letters?

Getting a letter from a MD/DO colleague will be way better than a letter from a typical shadowing experience.

The first major step is to re-take the MCAT. Score above a 505 (~28 on the old scoring system) and you'll be fine.

 

[Deecee2DO]

30 year old former practicing DC here and current 3rd year med student. I left chiro back in 2016 but kept my license active and actually practiced up through the fall of second year as a locum tenens. It helped pay bills and kept my clinical mind sharp as well as my PE skills and Hx taking. I only worked 1 day per week but it was a great gig. I never regret a second switching to medicine i absolutely love it and feel like my life is complete (felt like something was missing as a chiro-like I was meant to do bigger things and as if chiro wasnt mentally stimulating enough also loved the medicine side of things and complex pathophys that I wasnt getting with cracking backs all day and diagnosing sciatica and disc herniations on the reg). You are making the right decision. I had a few mentors who were MD/DCs and they said dont go back to do primary care which I agree with (financially i dont think its smart). I think PMR and Neuro is worth looking into more and both are great fields but going from being a foot and ankle surgeon to family medicine or peds may want to think about. Take the MCAT and get a 505+ and you should be good to go you already have everything else-honestly I think many med schools will fight over you you’ll have such a great story and unique app youll have no problem getting in. Keep in mind Step 1 will be going pass fail when you get to med school which may make the traditional more competitive specialties more challenging to match into as a DO (ortho, derm, ENT, plastics, ophtho etc) but you said you want to stay away from surgical specialties anyways so. Im currently interested in either GI or Allergy medicine myself both are awesome fields and may be worth researching more as well. But dang imagine having you as an anatomy partner for foot and ankle lmao. Feel free to PM me if youd like

 

[Splenda88]

@Deecee2DO

Do PM&R and neuro make that much than PCP? A couple of my colleagues already have 280k+/yr hospitalist contracts (7 days on/off), but it's not in big cities.

 

[Deecee2DO]

@Deecee2DO

Do PM&R and neuro make that much than PCP? A couple of my colleagues already have 280k+/yr hospitalist contracts (7 days on/off), but it's not in big cities.

Well hospitalists do make more than PCP since they are not considered PCPs. And yeah Neuro and PMR avg is in the 300K range. PCPs make like 230K but that depends on location of course

 

[mommyfootdoc]

What I write below applies to DO schools... who seem to love nontrads and career switchers more than our MD counterparts.



For the majority of schools, pre-reqs do not expire. Some schools will allow orgo 2 to be replaced by biochemistry. Some schools don't need orgo 2 at all. With your academic excellence podiatry school, I'm willing to bet there are schools that will be lenient towards your application.



You already work side-by-side with MDs/DOs on a professional level--something that all premeds can only dream of. Your experience in healthcare trumps every other form of clinical experience, so I wouldn't bother.



Getting a letter from a MD/DO colleague will be way better than a letter from a typical shadowing experience.

The first major step is to re-take the MCAT. Score above a 505 (~28 on the old scoring system) and you'll be fine.

Thank you! I do have several colleagues that I would like to shadow and who would be more than willing to write a letter. I hope that my institution allows shadowing. We have some of the strangest bylaws so who knows.

I do need to retake Organic 1 and may as well take 2 as well. It would not hurt to add physics. We did not study genetics in podiatry school so I may add that to show I can still ace upper level courses. The only dilemma I have is that my current state has so few state schools and the nearest one is 1.5 hours away. I can make it work but a community college would be easier in more ways than one.

 

[mommyfootdoc]

30 year old former practicing DC here and current 3rd year med student. I left chiro back in 2016 but kept my license active and actually practiced up through the fall of second year as a locum tenens. It helped pay bills and kept my clinical mind sharp as well as my PE skills and Hx taking. I only worked 1 day per week but it was a great gig. I never regret a second switching to medicine i absolutely love it and feel like my life is complete (felt like something was missing as a chiro-like I was meant to do bigger things and as if chiro wasnt mentally stimulating enough also loved the medicine side of things and complex pathophys that I wasnt getting with cracking backs all day and diagnosing sciatica and disc herniations on the reg). You are making the right decision. I had a few mentors who were MD/DCs and they said dont go back to do primary care which I agree with (financially i dont think its smart). I think PMR and Neuro is worth looking into more and both are great fields but going from being a foot and ankle surgeon to family medicine or peds may want to think about. Take the MCAT and get a 505+ and you should be good to go you already have everything else-honestly I think many med schools will fight over you you’ll have such a great story and unique app youll have no problem getting in. Keep in mind Step 1 will be going pass fail when you get to med school which may make the traditional more competitive specialties more challenging to match into as a DO (ortho, derm, ENT, plastics, ophtho etc) but you said you want to stay away from surgical specialties anyways so. Im currently interested in either GI or Allergy medicine myself both are awesome fields and may be worth researching more as well. But dang imagine having you as an anatomy partner for foot and ankle lmao. Feel free to PM me if youd like

Solid advice. Thank you! I definitely feel like my career is not mentally stimulating like you said. I am a great diagnostician but after seeing the same common problems routinely it has become a bore. I find myself reading journals for every specialty but mine, chatting with the general surgeons and urologists as we wait for add-ons, and listening to the green journal podcast for fun. I regret not leaving podiatry sooner but I guess I was too stubborn to realize the field is not a great fit for me. I will definitely reach out. Thanks again.

 

[Dochopeful13]

Solid advice. Thank you! I definitely feel like my career is not mentally stimulating like you said. I am a great diagnostician but after seeing the same common problems routinely it has become a bore. I find myself reading journals for every specialty but mine, chatting with the general surgeons and urologists as we wait for add-ons, and listening to the green journal podcast for fun. I regret not leaving podiatry sooner but I guess I was too stubborn to realize the field is not a great fit for me. I will definitely reach out. Thanks again.

I am a non trad thinking of applying to
Podiatry. Would you recommend this field for someone interested in surgery?

 

[newfeet]

I am a non trad thinking of applying to
Podiatry. Would you recommend this field for someone interested in surgery?

I am a podiatrist ( also thinking about doing a MD) if you want to do surgery you can. All the residencies are geared towards surgery now. They are 3 to 4 years. It depends on where you ended up working but you can have a practice where you are in the OR a few times a week. I know some classmates who did fellowships and work in hospitals as the main foot and ankle person.