What Is Do?

[RayhanS1282]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi, I am looking for a little enlightment here. I have very strong feelings to work in medicine. I started off trying in the allo schools but my MCAT is less than stellar. Rather than give up medicine altogether I thought I'd pursue DO since, my advisor recommended it. He actually said that DO has a "holistic" approach to medicine and provides great prep for family medicine. Now, my question is that what exactly is a DO? I know what the abbreviation stands for but other than that I have very limited knowledge about this.

Now, before anyone says "go to google"...I did that but still got incomplete descritptions. I am posting the question here because I figure who can describe DO better than a DO student.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

[Kent]

Check out the stickies at the top of the page. There is a great list of websites to check out. Best wishes.

 

[Fin-Nor]

may a little quick search on SDN's FRONT PAGE will reveal some answers... but who knows...

 

[DrMom]

Check out this sticky from the pre-osteo forum.

 

[Bigtime]

Go to www.aacom.org and read the intro and history of Osteopathic medicine.
Also, from what I've heard, read the book "The D.O.s: Osteopathic Medicine" by Norman Gevitz.

good luck. DO is really the way to go.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Go to www.aacom.org and read the intro and history of Osteopathic medicine.
Also, from what I've heard, read the book "The D.O.s: Osteopathic Medicine" by Norman Gevitz.

good luck. DO is really the way to go.

While your advice is good, perhaps we should let people make their own decisions on which is the "way to go."



Adrian

 

[JohnDO]

Indeed, check out "The D.O.s: Osteopathic Medicine" by Norman Gevitz for a good description of the history of osteopathic medicine.

http://www.aacom.org/om.html
http://www.kcom.edu/admissns/osteopathic.htm

You can find out more by browsing through various osteopathic sites such as:

http://do-online.org and
http://www.osteopathic.org/

Here's another good resource:
http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=ost_main

 

[Ratch]

if you really are interested in DO as a career, go and shadow with a few different physicians to see what their take on the profession is; thats better than any book or any post on these forums will get you. and i urge you if you do to try working with a couple different docs, everyone has a different take. good luck

 

[Bigtime]

Buckeye,

that is lame. Of course everyone will make their own decision.

Saying 'way to go' is encouraging. Have you ever encouraged anyone
to do anything? When you have a patient, are you going to say,
"These are you options Mr. Jones, but I'm not going to try to convince
you to do either of the two because you should make up your own mind.
Good luck though." If you know something, share it.

Or are you going to say, there are two surgical options. I'd recommend
the __________. This really is the way to go for a quick recovery, etc.
If you know something... share it.

 

[tastywithmilk]

Man, such hostility towards the guy. Sure everyone asks it but each person only makes the mistake once.

Original poster, check out www.wannawiki.com for some information on the differences between between Allo and DO and about what DO's do. I think the article was called something like "Understand the Difference Between Allopathic vs Osteopathy"

 

[NYCDesi]

Buckeye,

that is lame. Of course everyone will make their own decision.

Saying 'way to go' is encouraging. Have you ever encouraged anyone
to do anything? When you have a patient, are you going to say,
"These are you options Mr. Jones, but I'm not going to try to convince
you to do either of the two because you should make up your own mind.
Good luck though." If you know something, share it.

Or are you going to say, there are two surgical options. I'd recommend
the __________. This really is the way to go for a quick recovery, etc.
If you know something... share it.

You would be recommending one of the two procedures to your patient based on the fact that you know what BOTH procedures entail.

So unless you know what BOTH MD and DO life have to offer, how can you make that judgement call? It's one thing to encourage someone to check out an option because it worked out for YOU. But to clearly bang the gavel to someone and tell them that it is THE way to go without even knowing THEIR own needs, wants and perceptions....

 

[docbill]

Man I hope DO schools or Medical School in general makes us more united... or at least thinking on the same line.

Imagine, a new person comes to the pre-osteo section asks for info... and suddently after 10 replies there are arguments among people Knowledgable about DO phil ... about what.. simple words. Hmmm I wonder what kind of replies I am going to get now????

Best of Luck guys

 

[cardiotonic]

Man I hope DO schools or Medical School in general makes us more united... or at least thinking on the same line.

Imagine, a new person comes to the pre-osteo section asks for info... and suddently after 10 replies there are arguments among people Knowledgable about DO phil ... about what.. simple words. Hmmm I wonder what kind of replies I am going to get now????

Best of Luck guys

docbill,

You continue to impress me by your posts! Keep it up!

I think one of the reasons why people argue so much on SDN is because written words are sometimes taken differently then a voice accompanied by a facial expression. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be the type of doc that I would want to work along side of. Good luck!

 

[Hildergard]

I agree that we should cut the guy some slack. However, I would really recommend you to go to some library and check out books that talk about DO. I think that you'll get more information and have a much better understanding about this profession than just waiting to read some posts here. Actually, I was in your shoes not so long ago and at that time I did not know what the heck DO was. So, I went to my school library and got some books about DO. Honestly, that really illuminated me. 😀

 

[Bigtime]

sorry for my earlier reply.

Buckeye, especially to you... sorry man.

I am just excited by the DO philosophy and wanted to
leave that excitement to the fellow asking about DOs.


by all means, I don't want argue here.

-bigtime

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

sorry for my earlier reply.

Buckeye, especially to you... sorry man.

I am just excited by the DO philosophy and wanted to
leave that excitement to the fellow asking about DOs.


by all means, I don't want argue here.

-bigtime

No harm done, I understand your perspective. At the same time, you can't really say which is the way to go unless you are both an MD and a DO...


Adrian

 

[VentdependenT]

Just check out some match lists. That should let you know what a DO is. That being a PHYSICIAN.

 

[RayhanS1282]

Just check out some match lists. That should let you know what a DO is. That being a PHYSICIAN.

Thanks for all the replies folks...who knew in one page alone I'd get info, a little argument and a mutual resolution....only on SDN. I liked what I saw from the internet, SDN and the links posted...especially the pediatrics part. That's my primary interest and if DO can get me there, that's fine.

And as for the shadowing advice...anyone know how I can get started with that? The only physician I know is my primary physician and he has his private practice and only on rare occassions (if his patient has a surgery or something) he goes to the hopital.

 

[DORoe]

My advice to you is to get out the old phone book. Look for so and so DO and call them up and explain your situation. You will surely find a DO out there willing to talk with you and allow you to shadow them.

 

[JohnDO]

You could break out the phonebook. I know there are some resources set up somewhere for students who need to find an osteopathic physician to shadow; threads come up all the time around the application cycle. Do a search in these forums and I'm sure you'll come up with something. Good luck! 👍