Schools with DO programs attached

[soccerfeet]

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western, azpod and DMU all have DO schools attached. How do you interact with the DOs. All classes? Some classes? Are you graded any differently than the DOs in classes you do have with them? Do you think it is an advantage or disadvantage?

 

[heybrother]

DMU: All classes 1st year except we don't take OMM and they don't take Intro to Podiatry. Pharmacology second year.
We attend the same classes, take the same tests without any curves, and are partnered with them in mixed groups for anatomy and histology.

We interact with them just like anyone - they are your tired, drained classmates. There's no need to have an inferiority complex or be scared of them. If everything goes to plan they'll be referring to you in 7 years. Everyone has a fresh start when school begins - it is totally possible for you to have great academic success in school.

I don't believe there are any disadvantages to being part of a co-mingled school. We receive a true medical school science education - the teachers, the materials, the classes are all excellent. We're larger so we have more faculty and better facilities. There isn't any sort of professor shortage and you are never treated as a second class citizen. I wish more of our classes could have been taken with DOs.

 

[FootAndAnkle]

western, azpod and DMU all have DO schools attached. How do you interact with the DOs. All classes? Some classes? Are you graded any differently than the DOs in classes you do have with them? [...]

At Midwestern, all basic science courses are taken with D.O. classmates with no difference in grading or examination/assignment collection (you're treated exactly the same). This encompasses the first two years of school. The only difference between our curricula (for the non-clinical years) are our clinical medicine courses and the fact that we take podiatry-specific courses while they take OMM. The clinical medicine courses are somewhat different in that we are trained primarily by M.D.s, whereas they are primarily taught by D.O.s (and we don't have OB/GYN or pediatrics units in that course).

[...] Do you think it is an advantage or disadvantage?

It's a major advantage with regard to quality of education, in my opinion. MWU's D.O. curriculum is top-notch and it'd be difficult to ask for better quality basic science training. The contrast of quality between the basic science courses and the profession-specific classes run by D.P.M.s (which does not include our clinical medicine courses, which are also fantastic) was unfortunately quite noticeable for the most part, although some newer faculty are doing a great job of improving those courses' quality, as well.

 

[feet2017]

At westernu you take take all the classes with the DOs except their osteopath class (OMM), but you take a podiatry version (PMP). There's a class called ECM where you see standardized patients and the DOs take it as well, but is slightly different since they incorporate OMM into the encounters and we incorporate more foot cases.

As for exams you take the same test as them, but we have a different curve than them. Honestly it's hard to compare a class that has 150 or so to a class that is <50 students, also the level of students are different and the test averages aren't just the same.

I think it's an advantage as other's have stated.The shared curriculum courses and test are just more fluid and organized.

Although we may be weaker at podiatry compared to the other schools initially by the end of our 4th year and externships we are all on the same playing field. Also you have to remember there's a reason why we all have to do a 3 year residency, it's to learn podiatry.

Take our opinions with a grain of salt since the people that are posting all go to a shared curriculum dpm/do school. we are a little biased.

 

[F00T&ANKLE]

western, azpod and DMU all have DO schools attached. How do you interact with the DOs. All classes? Some classes? Are you graded any differently than the DOs in classes you do have with them? Do you think it is an advantage or disadvantage?

It may be worthwhile to know that AZPOD students graduate having completed more credit hours than their D.O. colleagues. In addition to two years in basic science with the D.O. Students, the podiatry students are in a classroom for 6 months longer taking podiatric specific courses. (Lower extremity anatomy, biomechanics, pediatric orthopedics, dermatology, pathomechanics etc.) These six months of didactics are completed during summers after the first and second years.

 

[Podman16]

It may be worthwhile to know that AZPOD students graduate having completed more credit hours than their D.O. colleagues. In addition to two years in basic science with the D.O. Students, the podiatry students are in a classroom for 6 months longer taking podiatric specific courses. (Lower extremity anatomy, biomechanics, pediatric orthopedics, dermatology, pathomechanics etc.) These six months of didactics are completed during summers after the first and second years.

Actually, the students in DO program still complete more credits than we do in the podiatry program, even though we attend our summer courses. We complete somewhere in the ballpark of 230 and they are over 260 credits.

 

[SLCpod]

Rather than comparing a DPM or DPM/DO program pre-pods should be comparing the education at all the schools they are interested in. Each school has a slightly different curriculum. Just because a school has a DO program doesn't mean it will be a good fit for a student.

A disadvantage to the DO integrated schools would be the class size. I enjoyed having a class of 50 during my basic science courses. Professors were always available to for questions. I also thought it was nice to have 4 students for a head to toe dissection of a cadaver. I have heard (please correct me if incorrect) that DO integrated schools do more sharing of the cadavers.

 

[heybrother]

Everyone will have to decide for themselves what suits them best. If DMU had been in NYcity, I probably wouldn't have gone there. When I weighed the pros and cons of DMU, I appreciated knowing that the material I was being taught was medical school material (and as such would be the things I would need to know later when I'm part of a multi-disciplinary team). I've long since made the transition from DO to DPM classes and I've said this ad nauseam - the DOs were held to an incredibly high standard that our podiatry curriculum didn't match. Being held to that standard matters. I've met students from other schools who told me they were given half their tests beforehand as practice problems. I'm skeptical of other schools.

Yes, we had more students per cadaver for our whole-body dissection. We had 3 students to a leg (toes to wait) for lower limb which was also perfectly placed right before boards. We had many anatomy professors and a large number of masters of anatomy TA students.

 

[FootAndAnkle]

[...] A disadvantage to the DO integrated schools would be the class size. I enjoyed having a class of 50 during my basic science courses. Professors were always available to for questions. I also thought it was nice to have 4 students for a head to toe dissection of a cadaver. I have heard (please correct me if incorrect) that DO integrated schools do more sharing of the cadavers.

For MWU, I always found the basic science professors readily available for questions or commentary despite the larger class size for those courses.

Regarding sharing of cadavers:
Gross Anatomy (3 quarters): 6 students per cadaver, only 4 students dissecting on a given day
Lower Extremity Anatomy (1 quarter): 2 students per limb (below knee specimen)
Advanced Dissection (1 quarter, elective): 2 students per full cadaver with individually focused dissection