Residency that takes mostly DO's?

[deleted314290]

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Greetings all, I was hoping to get some insight regarding a residency program. One of the programs I am applying to seems to have a heavy preference toward DO students. More than half of the residents are DO's (mostly from the in-town DO programs) while the remaining MD's are mostly from the in-state medical school. That doesn't bother me but the skeptic in me is concerned by this trend. The program is a University affiliated community program so I can understand that many people would overlook it in search of bigger programs. Based on the information available on the website it seems to be a very good fit and allows for its residents to pursue individual interests. I haven't interviewed there yet but it is one of my top choices going in to interview season. Would this be a red flag for anyone else or am I just worrying for no reason? Also, should I ask the PD why they take more DO's during the interview or would that come across the wrong way? Thank you, I look forward to other people's thoughts.

 

[deleted314290]

Are you sure it's not also a DO program? Check http://opportunities.osteopathic.org/

According to that website it is not a DO program.

 

[shan564]

You mention the "in-town DO programs" as if there are more than one, which would be unusual. If it's a local area with a lot of DO grads, it makes sense that they'd have a lot of DOs in their psych program. I'm sure that there are a lot of other reasonable contributing factors, but it's hard for us to weigh in unless you specify which place it is.

 

[deleted314290]

The program is Banner Good Samaritan in Phoenix, AZ. There are two major DO campuses in the area so it would make sense it attracts a lot of DO students, I just thought the breakdown was pretty high for a MD program. It doesnt bother me at all but it is pretty peculiar when compared to the other programs I was looking at.

 

[shan564]

The Phoenix area has significantly more DO grads than MD grads. I think all that this says about the program in question is that they don't have much of a bias against DOs.

 

[deleted314290]

Thank you for the responses , I wont worry as much .

 

[Psychotic]

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[Psychotic]

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[OldPsychDoc]

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I have nothing against DOs, nor do I harbor any ill feelings towards many foreign trained doctors, but it catches my attention when there are a lot of non US MD or DO grads from med schools located somewhere in this hemisphere that I have never heard of, or they are from what I assume to be some lower tier caribbean program - any combination of the above that results in US MDs making up less than half the program residents is a red flag to me that deserves further investigation, but if most of that is DOs and there is a geographic reason like the one you mention, I think it would be better than OK assuming the program checks out in other regards.

As long as you are truly investigating further...and not simply dismissing a program as "low quality" merely on the basis of its roster. Otherwise your initial sentence up there kind of sounds like "some of my best friends are ______..."

 

[Psychotic]

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[OldPsychDoc]

Thank you.