So, I keep hearing that DOs are essentially the same as MDs esp. if they do an allopathic residency. So, if I just take COMLEX and go for a DO residency, where will I be working? Will my job opportunities be the same as a MD resident?
Where do Osteopathic residents work after residecy?
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We go back to Planet Still in the OMM Galaxy.
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Your opportunities will be exactly the same as an MD.
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I am amazed that you were able to get into a DO school without knowing the answers to your questions.
This is the only real answer I got, I appreciate it. I am assuming that the reason most DO students take both boards is because of the limited number of residencies available to DOs in Osteopathic medicine. It is good to know that my opportunities will be the same as a MD.
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Bottom line is that some allopathic residencies still prefer that you take the USMLE, but this is changing gradually as more accept the COMLEX. Personally I took the USMLE to see what the big deal was... I ended up doing better on it than the COMLEX.
When you're looking for a job or fellowship after residency, what you accomplished during residency is more important than where you went to med school, your COMLEX/USMLE scores, or whether you're a DO or an MD. Kind of like when you're applying to med school, they look at your college grades rather than high school grades.
So if you want to be on the faculty at a top-tier research institution such as Johns Hopkins, you want to do awesome in med school to get into an excellent residency, and then also excel in your residency. If you want to work at a community hospital or private practice, you just have to finish residency. So there's no difference in job opportunities, it all depends on what you want to do. The only downside to going to a DO school is that getting that top-notch residency may be a little more of an uphill battle than an MD who already went to a top-notch MD school.
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This is the only real answer I got, I appreciate it. I am assuming that the reason most DO students take both boards is because of the limited number of residencies available to DOs in Osteopathic medicine. It is good to know that my opportunities will be the same as a MD.
I don't think anyone is trying to be an *****, at least I'm not. Granted if you were a high school sophomore asking this question most of us would let it slide, but for someone who is accepted into a DO school and doesn't know that their practice opportunities will be the same as an MD. I would assume one would look into this long before applying/matching into a DO program.
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I have to agree with DO_Surgeon here...almost 900 posts, you have been accepted to a DO school, and this question just comes up?...I guess we'll see you at DMU next fall!
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DO students take both board scores for many reasons. The main reason is just purely for more opportunities. Whether that is geographical, program options, applying for lots of competitive spots, or any other reason, a lot of DOs take both.This is the only real answer I got, I appreciate it. I am assuming that the reason most DO students take both boards is because of the limited number of residencies available to DOs in Osteopathic medicine. It is good to know that my opportunities will be the same as a MD.
Your initial question was about job opportunities after residency. The more lengthy answer is: DOs are fully board certified in everything. There are no limits. Whether you're a cardiologist, hospitalist, general surgeon, dermatologist, pediatrician, or a neurosurgeon, no one cares what the two initials are by your name after you are done with residency. I am pretty surprised you haven't seen threads like this in the past though, considering your 800 posts.
I fully understand this part. I know the title does not mean anything. I always knew I would take both sets of boards and apply for allopathic residencies. I need to have the choice and I am willing to put in the hard work. The part I was not clear about was the DO residencies. I actually only learned of the DO path fairly recently even though I posted long before I found out about AACOMAS and applied (my posts back then were mostly in the MCAT section). I will not go into details but AACOMAS worked out great for me due to my foreign undergrad. I am truly grateful for having the option to go to a DO school.
My confusion came about because I know there are Osteopathic hospitals (in Detroit area where I lived for a few years). I know of a DO ENT who worked in that hospital. So, I was wondering if that was typical. That's all.
I have met with and shadowed an Orthopedic surgeon who is a DO. He works beside his MD counterparts and very well respected. He took the USMLE and did an allopathic residency. He gave me a LOR too. So, don't think I don't know the basics of DO philosophy and opportunities. I just have not had a chance to meet/shadow a DO physician who did DO residency in areas like ENT or plastic surgery etc. I googled them a while ago when I was looking to shadow and did not find them in the city where I live. I understand that in the primary care, DOs and MDs work together because I have seen them do that in primary care settings. My question was strictly about fields like cardiology or neurology. I should have been more specific about this in my original post.
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Well, in response to the cardiology & neurology part....Cardiology is very competitive currently and you must do an internal medicine residency and then apply to a cardiology fellowship. If you are thinking cardiology, the allopathic IM residencies may help you be more competitive for a cardiology fellowship. That is not to say that you can't get a cardiology fellowship after doing an osteopathic IM residency but it might be a tougher road. There are both DO & allopathic neurology residencies so that is a matter of personal preference as well as location. I hope that answers your question. I'm not sure what you were wanting to know about cardiology and neurology but that's the basics. Good luck!
Thanks! That makes sense.
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Well said Sir
We want to be hepful and give the OP the answers he/she needs, but on the other hand...come on!
I researched the DO degree a lot, read about OMM, the Flexner Report, my school, etc. To the OP: please do the same! Start with wikipedia and go from there, you don't even have to leave the comfort of your chair
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Really? You don't see how the quote below and in fact the title of this thread in any way shows a lack of understanding the absolute basics of the DO degree?
I want to welcome you here and congratulate you Deepa, I really do, but it seems...I'm sorry, but...imbecilic to apply for DO school without knowing whether or not you could practice medicine. I don't get it.
This issue has also been talked about a lot with pre-meds, if you search the forum I'm sure you'll find a lot of information regarding matching ,etc.
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I don't think the OP was out of order for asking this. Maybe they didn't word it well, but I think their actual question is why do DO students take the USMLE, and why do they fill allopathic residencies? I think it's a good question to ask.
If you feel the post is redundant, or misinformed, or irritating, you could always just ignore it.
If you feel the post is redundant, or misinformed, or irritating, you could always just ignore it.
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Umm... you read a report written in 1910 to help you decide what medical school to go to?
I think you're unique in that regard.
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Actually, I read Dr. Elijah McGillicuddy's Guide to the Four Humours to help me in my med school search.
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Actually, I read Dr. Elijah McGillicuddy's Guide to the Four Humours to help me in my med school search.
During a presentation to the house staff one week I explained that a patient had an excess of black bile and phlegm as an explanation for abdominal pain, and suggested a purgative and calefacients as the treatment. Yea... in hindsight it was a bad idea. When you're a resident, don't do that.
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No, you will only be able to work as a janitor in your local walmart.
hahahaha he beat me to it
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The FDA approved leeches as medical devices in June 2004.
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I don't think I'm unique at all. A doctor (an MD) recommended I read about it to help chose a school. And she was right, it was useful
Because of that report, more than half of all US medical schools closed down. Through all of this, the school that I chose (PCOM) survived.
So, about a hundred years ago, osteopathic schools like PCOM demonstrated that the quality of education they provided was better the majority of MD schools at the time.
I think that history is relevant. It was only a component of my decision making process as I said earlier.
Is it a better way to chose a school than, say, throwing a dart on a board, which sounds like what the OP did? I can't say for sure, I guess it's just personal preference!
Fair enough, well said Sir.
I sometimes get the same feeling reading these threads as I do watching old episodes of Jerry Springer at the laundromat...it's a sort of perverse pleasure one gets from listening to ill informed people. This thread wasn't quite as bad as other ones, but I still don't feel proud of myself for reading it!
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You can pursue any residency (MD or DO) after graduating from an osteopathic medical school. Competitive specialties tend to be more difficult to obtain as a DO, though there are DO residencies of every MD specialty.
On a completely random note, I just have to say that the only girl I met in person named Deepa was drop dead gorgeous.
So, hi!
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I sometimes get the same feeling reading these threads as I do watching old episodes of Jerry Springer at the laundromat...it's a sort of perverse pleasure one gets from listening to ill informed people. This thread wasn't quite as bad as other ones, but I still don't feel proud of myself for reading it!
*sigh*...Indeed. I feel the same way. If I have down time at work, I steer over to these threads. I like to think of it as *craven* rather than *perverse*, but I suppose both words work!!!
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D.O.s need some government intervention to offset these income disparities between us and MDs.
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how do you bill that? Is it per leach?
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What I'd like to know from the original poster is where the figure of 60% of osteopathic students taking the USMLE came from. I would be very surprised if it was really that high.
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You are correct, but you can still bill for it if used properly. Here is Aetna's policy.... just in case abyone really is interested...hahah!
http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/500_599/0556.html
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I was kind of having a hard time believing that too. I know that it's nowhere close to that with my class. Perhaps, since so many DO graduates end up in ACGME residencies they assumed that they all take USMLE.
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This is COMPLETELY untrue!
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Gee thats funny...it seems from your previous posts that you aren't really at LECOM yet, even though you are trying to talk with some authority about residency and "MD hospitals".
Please stop talking nonsense
Speaking of which..
Lol, glad I'm not the only person to get a kick out of these questions/comments!
I just had to come back, although I resisted for a long time as you can see
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That doesn't make sense...MD Hospital? What the hell is an MD hospital. There aren't MD and DO exclusive hospitals. There may be a hospital that has more of one than the other, but not like they have a secret list of "MD only" locales to work at.
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I think what he meant was the affiliate hospitals of MD schools...but yeah poor choice of words on his part..
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lol yeah
If someone refers to a hospital as being "D.O" I think they just mean that they have more osteophathic physicians than normal. For instance I shadowed a D.O family practitioner who refered to this hospital http://www.despereshospital.com/en-us/cwsapps/FindAPhysician.aspx as being osteophathic. If you search through the specialties though there is just a larger percentage of D.O's than you might expect.
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One time I read some insane pre-allo poster talking about how he hated DOs, they were inferior etc because his grandma died at an 'osteopathic hospital.' I never knew what that meant ...
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"Osteopathic hospitals" generally refers to hospitals established/controlled by osteopathic physicians. They exist usually because local DOs had difficulty getting admitting privileges in established hospitals. Massapequa General Hospital in Nassau County, NY was an osteopathic hospital established for that reason. It closed down while I was in school. Botsford Hospital in Michigan and Doctors Hospital in Ohio are osteopathic hospitals also in that sense.
Many osteopathic hospitals had bad reputations. I think, though, that this may have been due to these places typically being smaller community hospitals where you weren't exactly getting state of the art care.
Nowadays it seems the exclusively osteopathic hospital has fallen by the wayside. Due to improvements in our education in the last 50 years and the more mainstream acceptance of DOs into "MD hospitals" the need for osteopathic hospitals isn't really there anymore.
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Hahaha oh ya, I'm sure no one else has a grandma who has died at "MD hospitals"... (Mine did)
Sidenote- For anyone to harbor such idiotic prejudices speaks only to their intelligence.
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MD just looks cooler embroidered on a lab coat.
MD might look cooler, but DO is a verb. See, the real difference between allopathic physicians and osteopathic physicians is that osteopathic phsicans are men and women of action. Hence why the postnominal is DO. After all, have you ever heard of someone MDing another person. You hear about people DOing other people all the time...
/tongue in cheek.
/tongue in cheek.
