Question about specialty

[Jli]

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This might be a stupid question but it has been stuck with me for a long time.
First, I'm new to this forum and currently trying to pursue my goal in getting into medical school to become a surgeon.

I don't particularly have a specialty that I want to be in. Is there a way you could study into focusing on the whole body instead of a certain part having one specialty? (ex. Cardio,radiology,urology,gynecology, and etc.
I was thinking that would be OD instead of MD. If you can explain what's the difference between the OD and MD. I just want to make sure.
I know that OD studys the whole body, and MD studys a particular part.
Please correct me if im wrong. Personally, I want to become a doctor who knows how to deal with the entire body.

sorry for the multi-post school computer was lagging and I pressed enter 3 times

 

[MILK07]

I'm going to assume you mean DO, not OD (which is an optometrist or eye doctor). There is no difference between a DO and an MD. They both are four year curriculums where you will learn about the entire human body. You will take classes like anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, biochemistry, etc in both. Osteopathic schools (the DO) also have a course in manipulation, which I will admit to knowing little about.

If you want to be a surgeon, you go to either an MD or DO school for four years and then pursue a general surgery residency. These are five years (generally). Once you are done with that, you will be able to do surgery on most body parts. However, if you discover that you like one part more than others (GI surgery, transplant surgery, surgical oncology, etc), you can do a fellowship, which is more in depth training after residency.

There are other options, like ENT (they operate on ears, noses, and throats), ortho (bones, etc), opthamology (on eyes). There are more specialized residency options. There are even surgical options in OB-GYN, like C-sections and gynecological surgeries.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

 

[GoldShadow]

I'm going to assume you mean DO, not OD (which is an optometrist or eye doctor).

Small correction: OD is an optometrist; an "eye doctor" is an ophthalmologist, which requires a medical degree.

 

[MassTransport]

All the specialties you listed aren't surgical specialties. If you want to be a surgeon, the most general you can get is general surgery, which is about the same as abdominal surgery. If you want to do something with the whole body, you'll want to look at primary care medicine specialties, these are your general internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, and controversially, emergency medicine.

 

[MILK07]

Small correction: OD is an optometrist; an "eye doctor" is an ophthalmologist, which requires a medical degree.

Thanks for the correction.😀

I just wanted to make sure the OP knew what I was talking about.

 

[Jli]

Thanks for the replies guys, I kind of get the idea now. Also if you study as a general surgeon, you would also know all the primary care specialties right?

I knew it was DO I caught the mistake right when I pressed submit and I couldn't fix it on time. sorry 😎

In case your wondering, Im asking this because if I encounter someone who needs help, I want to be able to save anyone under any circumstances and im willing to study on that.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Thanks for the replies guys, I kind of get the idea now. Also if you study as a general surgeon, you would also know all the primary care specialties right?

I knew it was DO I caught the mistake right when I pressed submit and I couldn't fix it on time. sorry 😎

In case your wondering, Im asking this because if I encounter someone who needs help, I want to be able to save anyone under any circumstances and im willing to study on that.

So you want to be able to run a code and perform emergency neurosurgery, etc.? Sorry, only House can do that.

 

[guestdoc]

Small correction: OD is an optometrist; an "eye doctor" is an ophthalmologist, which requires a medical degree.

Although "optometrists" are not physicians, they are still called "doctor so-and-so" and they work on eyes. ___ + ___ = ??

OP, for surgery you'd need to go MD (allopathic) or DO (osteopathic). (for surgery on eyes, too) 🙂

 

[MILK07]

Thanks for the replies guys, I kind of get the idea now. Also if you study as a general surgeon, you would also know all the primary care specialties right?

I knew it was DO I caught the mistake right when I pressed submit and I couldn't fix it on time. sorry 😎

In case your wondering, Im asking this because if I encounter someone who needs help, I want to be able to save anyone under any circumstances and im willing to study on that.

I don't think you would know all the primary care specialties. You would be familiar with common medicine problems that have surgery as a treatment option. If you are wondering whether or not you would be able to save someone's life if you found them lying on the side of the road unresponsive, then yes, all doctors receive this kind of training.

You would have have a basic knowledge of most things from medical school, but your job as a surgeon would be to assess a patient and decide if surgery would be beneficial, then perform the surgery and manage any complications that arise as a result of the surgery.

In medical school you rotate through many different fields, including pediatrics, medicine, ob-gyn, family medicine, and psych. You would get a basic knowledge of common illnesses seen on each of these rotations. This is just a basic foundation for future practice and a chance to see if any of these specialties interest you.

 

[MrBurns10]

First of all, in medical school, you will learn everything about the body...far more than you ever wanted to know. You then will decide what specialty you will want to pursue. If you decide you want to work with all organ systems, then you'll probably pursue something like family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. General radiology also deals with the whole body only in an imaging sense.

You were thinking of a DO, which is an equivalent degree to the MD only its schooling also includes manipulation techniques. An OD, on the other hand, is an optometrist (works only with the eye).

 

[ksmi117]

Merging with duplicate thread. 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

Small correction: OD is an optometrist; an "eye doctor" is an ophthalmologist, which requires a medical degree.

Leave the kid alone -- if s/he wants to become an optometrist who deals with the whole body and not just gynecological problems, who are we to judge. 😀

 

[howelljolly]

This might be a stupid question but it has been stuck with me for a long time.
First, I'm new to this forum and currently trying to pursue my goal in getting into medical school to become a surgeon.

I don't particularly have a specialty that I want to be in. Is there a way you could study into focusing on the whole body instead of a certain part having one specialty? (ex. Cardio,radiology,urology,gynecology, and etc.
I was thinking that would be OD instead of MD. If you can explain what's the difference between the OD and MD. I just want to make sure.
I know that OD studys the whole body, and MD studys a particular part.
Please correct me if im wrong. Personally, I want to become a doctor who knows how to deal with the entire body.

sorry for the multi-post school computer was lagging and I pressed enter 3 times

Thanks for the replies guys, I kind of get the idea now. Also if you study as a general surgeon, you would also know all the primary care specialties right?

I knew it was DO I caught the mistake right when I pressed submit and I couldn't fix it on time. sorry 😎

In case your wondering, Im asking this because if I encounter someone who needs help, I want to be able to save anyone under any circumstances and im willing to study on that.

Whoa there Grasshopper.

In medical school, an MD or DO studies the entire body, and does selected clinicals which give them a broad knowledge base for medicine, surgery, as well as radiology, psychiatry, etc etc. On graduation, the MD or DO chooses a residency. It is at this point that they (broad strokes here) choose medicine or surgery, or a specialty that combines both (eg. urology), or a specialty that does neither (eg. pathology). After choosing and training in medicine or surgery, one can specialize in a particular organ system, or disease process (eg. cardiology, neurosurgery, infectious disease).

The difference between MD and DO is that DOs learn a type of treatment called osteopathic manipulation. DOs also argue that they have a holistic approach to medicine... which might mean that they make it a point to step back and get a big picture of the patient rather than looking at labs and numbers. In actuality, they dont do this any more than MDs do. But, its specifically part of their training. It doesnt mean that they focus on the whole body. Anyway.

OD is a Doctor of Optometry. They deal with only the eyes. DPM is a Podiatrist, dealing with the foot and ankle. DDS or DMD is a Dentist - teeth and jaws. PsyD - Psychologist - the mind. and so on. These are the ones that focus only on a particular body part.

To complicate things OD... doctor of OptoMETRY... they measure "refractive error" and prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses, as well as screen for diseases of the eye such as cataracts or glaucoma. MDs who specialize in Ophthalmology treat diseases of the eye, and perform surgery on and around the eye.

If you studied as a general surgeon... meaning, got an MD (Doctor of Medicine) and then did a residency in General Surgery.... you would certainly not know all of the primary care specialties. One might say that you dont know ANY of them, actually.

You would know how to perform specific surgeries, most commonly in the abdomen... on the stomach, intestines, abdominal wall.... You'd also perform other simple general surgeries such as taking out masses, or repairing a wound that isnt healing. If you specialized in a particular organ system or procedure.... such as vascular surgery, or bariatric surgery.... you'd do that

Primary Care has a few definitions. It can mean 'keeping healthy people healthy' or 'the first point of care for a patient' or 'general medicine' The Primiary Care specialties are Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Practice. Some include OB/Gyn and Psychiatry.
The closest to knowing all of the primary care specialties is Family Practice, as it covers adult and pediatric medicine, as well as OB/Gyn.

If you encounter anyone that needs help, you will NEVER be able to save them under ALL circumstances.

If you want to be trained in the management of medical emergencies, you could complete medical school and then complete a residency in Emergency Medicine. Unfortunately, you still won't be able to save everyone. Sometimes you'll have to call a surgeon to take them to the OR to save their life. Sometimes you'll have to call a cardiologist to take them to the cath lab to save their life. Sometimes, there's nothing that you or anyone else can do to save their life.

That being said, (probably) everyone, MDs DOs, dentists, podiatrists, must be certified in CPR and Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Thats specific treatment for when the patients heart stops. It doesnt teach you what to do if the patient is hit by a bus. It also has a very poor success rate.

The best thing you can do to save someones life outside the hospital (even in your private clinic) is to keep them from injuring themselves further, and call 911 to get them to an emergency room. Inside the hospital, you'd call whoever you need to to get help.