LukeWhite said:
Fueg,
So what you're saying is that an FMG who can't pass the USMLE is a failure (while presumably the 30% of DOs who try and fail aren't?), osteopathy is defined by techniques a fraction of ts members use, and the COMLEX is just as tough as the USMLE? Now that's a set of contentions I'd be interested in seeing you defend..
I really don't know the stats on the failure rate for FMGs, but the 30% fail rate by DOs is due to us not being prepped for this test. We are trained for the COMLEX! That's why we pass it. These folks are trained for the USMLE and still can't hack.
I haven't taken either exam yet, but yeah I think the COMLEX is just as hard. Now it may be a p!ss-poorly written exam, but I still think it's gotta stand up.
LukeWhite said:
To say that OMM is what defines osteopathy when something like 10% of DO's practice OMM, and yet 25% of FPs are DOs despite the fact that we comprise only 5% of the total physician population misses the bigger picture. If we're defined by OMM, it's something we're not doing. However, it's indisputable that DO's are far more oriented towards primary care and, yes, frontier medicine.
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If only 10% of DOs practice OMM then they are simply physicians who elect to not use a great tool. Their locale in the sticks doesn't define their profession.
25% of FPs are DOS? I really did not know that. I can believe that 25% of DOs are FPs. Do you have a citation?
LukeWhite said:
Moreover, to suggest that OMM is unique to osteopathy is a bit of a stretch. Chiropractors, in aggregate, do it better. Moreover, we've certainly no monopoly over MDs on manipulative medicine. OMM is a very specific niche that has definite uses. Kind of strange, though, to define our discipline by something that almost none of its members use and that many outside the discipline *do* use.
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A couple of my attendings would go to the mat w/ you suggesting that chiros approximate OMM. "None" is a little overstatement eh? I agree that we have no monopoly on manipulation, but the desimination of this tool broadens the scope of medicine in total, and elevates the DO specifically.
LukeWhite said:
As far as foreign doctors and COMLEX go, yes, many who can't pass the USMLE might very well be able to pass the COMLEX after a round of intensive OMM training. Call it belittling if you like; if I thought the education was inferior I'd have gone to an allopathic school. COMLEX tests a broader and more practical skill set on a somewhat more superficial level. It is an easier test. Arguing otherwise indicates some disregard for reality, and heaven help you if you plan on taking both and think that the USMLE's going to be the same level of intensity as the COMLEX.
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I really need some stats on that "easier test" thing. Different, thicker, funny smelling maybe, but easier?
LukeWhite said:
If you want to talk belittling, calling an FMG who may have been practicing for years in his or her home country a "fine failure" simply because they can't pass the highly idiosyncratic USMLE reveals a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. I'd encourage you to meet a few FMGs struggling to take the test before you judge their general capacity.
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As an RN I worked for years at institutions that catered to getting these folks boarded. If you want to get scared sometime, I'll buy you a frosty something and then talk your ear right off with one anecdote after another. These were not just hard working third world future waiters. I recall a certain dashing Western european person who collapsed on a gurney crying when he couldn't interpret an EKG. (oops ya got one without the beer
)He's one that prepped enough and passed the USMLE. I've seen their general capacity and found it fairly vacant. I have met some of these folks that could hang, but then they had smoked their licensing boards.
LukeWhite said:
And yes, MDs have embraced many tenets taught by osteopaths, just like we've started to prescribe medication this past hundred years or so. Just calling something yours doesn't make it so. All in all, osteopathy's coming to be defined more by a whining and wishful insistence on its own uniqueness than anything else, and that's a shame.
Actually you substituted "by" for "to". Read the post, it's an easy mistake, but an important distinction.
As far as the "whining, wishful insistance on uniqueness" goes, aren't you the one who was worried about "diluting" osteopathy.
I want a profession that embraces technology and research to make me a better doctor. I will be a physician long before I am an osteopath. OMM will be my "uniqueness" everything else will hopefully match the accumen and competence of my MD colleagues. Having lived in that world, I know my education is giving me just that. Combining these exams will give me the opportunity to demonstrate this.
Our colleges will have to adjust to the USMLE curriculum in the form of more Biochem and Epidemiology. I don't see how this is a bad thing.