Why can't I find a single DO doc?

[CommyO]

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I've been searching local areas and I am unable to find a DO physician. I thought DO schools outnumbered MDs and went into PC/FM more than MDs. That's why I'm shocked to not find a single DO in my city. Granted, it's a small underserved poor city. There are tons of IMGs especially indian docs who practice around here.

 

[emcatb]

MD schools and doctors still significantly outnumber DO schools and doctors, though the number of DOs is increasing (woohoo!). But DO's are not evenly distributed across the country. DO's are sometimes more likely to work in rural areas than MDs. You may need to look outside of your specific city to find one if DOs are uncommon in your area.

 

[astrostellar]

Is there a DO school in your state? That's a big factor. My home state has a DO school and no MD school. I'd say 3/4 of the family docs are DOs or are actually just midlevels.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Is there a DO school in your state? That's a big factor. My home state has a DO school and no MD school. I'd say 3/4 of the family docs are DOs or are actually just midlevels.

.... DO FM doctors make up less than 1/4th of all FM doctors.

 

[astrostellar]

.... DO FM doctors make up less than 1/4th of all FM doctors.

Sorry, that's continuing my previous thought (referring to #s in my home state which does not have an MD school).

 

[Goro]

I've been searching local areas and I am unable to find a DO physician. I thought DO schools outnumbered MDs and went into PC/FM more than MDs. That's why I'm shocked to not find a single DO in my city. Granted, it's a small underserved poor city. There are tons of IMGs especially indian docs who practice around here.

There are > 150 or so MD schools in the US and ~30 DO.
About 60% of DOs go into Primary Care, which ~20-30% of MDs do.

Perhaps this was the source of your confusion?

IF there is a DO school in driving distance, go visit and chat up their DO faculty. My own DO colleagues love it when people do this.

Failing that, shadow an MD and just don't apply to those schools that require a DO LOR.

The AOA might be able to help you find a DO to shadow.

 

[CommyO]

There are > 150 or so MD schools in the US and ~30 DO.
About 60% of DOs go into Primary Care, which ~20-30% of MDs do.

Perhaps this was the source of your confusion?

IF there is a DO school in driving distance, go visit and chat up their DO faculty. My own DO colleagues love it when people do this.

Failing that, shadow an MD and just don't apply to those schools that require a DO LOR.

The AOA might be able to help you find a DO to shadow.

Yeah, you're right. I searched the facts later on google. By the judgements from people on here of the COCA, I assumed DOs were surpassing the MD schoools but I was wrong.

There are 2 DO schools here to like 8 MD which probably contribute to the majority being MD.

 

[LutGholein]

I've been searching local areas and I am unable to find a DO physician. I thought DO schools outnumbered MDs and went into PC/FM more than MDs. That's why I'm shocked to not find a single DO in my city. Granted, it's a small underserved poor city. There are tons of IMGs especially indian docs who practice around here.

The Western United States doesn't really have a huge DO presence given that there are few DO schools(even less with a 15+ year history) in that region so i'd imagine you might have a harder time reaching out to them if you reside there) -- just try to cold call the few that have practices out there or try getting in touch with the nearest DO school and see if there's any preceptors willing to let you shadow.

 

[Goro]

Yeah, you're right. I searched the facts later on google. By the judgements from people on here of the COCA, I assumed DOs were surpassing the MD schoools but I was wrong.

There are 2 DO schools here to like 8 MD which probably contribute to the majority being MD.

While DO schools are opening up at what is to me an alarming rate, the number of MD and DO schools that have opened in the past 15 years has been identical!

 

[deleted407021]

While DO schools are opening up at what is to me an alarming rate, the number of MD and DO schools that have opened in the past 15 years has been identical!

This is an interesting point that I've never seen on here before

 

[Peach Newport]

This is an interesting point that I've never seen on here before

It's actually been mentioned several times.

The problem is that the MD schools that open, because they need to be LCME accredited, need to provide their students with strong, teaching-hospital rotation sites with resident teams. DO schools have no such obligation, resulting in poorer quality of clinical education.

The number of residencies also is remaining constant.

The end result is that there are far more students competing for desirable residency positions... and many of these applicants are from the new MD schools, who, because of their superior clinical education, will beat out the DOs for desirable specialty spots.

So the fear is that more DOs than ever will be "funneled" into primary care, seriously limiting carreer options, and cementing the DO degree as a "primary care degree" and pigeonholing DO students. There are also many who fear that the proliferation of "subpar" DO schools will seriously hurt the reputation of the DO degree.

 

[ortnakas]

The Western United States doesn't really have a huge DO presence given that there are few DO schools(even less with a 15+ year history) in that region so i'd imagine you might have a harder time reaching out to them if you reside there) -- just try to cold call the few that have practices out there or try getting in touch with the nearest DO school and see if there's any preceptors willing to let you shadow.

This.

There's probably a state osteopathic medicine organization of some sort as well-- might be worthwhile to reach out to them asking for contacts.

 

[Hokie_DOkie]

Most DO programs require a LOR from a DO. This was very difficult for me to find as well since I am from a very rural town. I would suggest looking for DOs near you. You may have to drive a little, but if you shadow for 5-8 hours a day then it is well worth the drive. You can get some good hours knocked out fairly quickly.

 

[Peach Newport]

Most DO programs require a LOR from a DO. This was very difficult for me to find as well since I am from a very rural town. I would suggest looking for DOs near you. You may have to drive a little, but if you shadow for 5-8 hours a day then it is well worth the drive. You can get some good hours knocked out fairly quickly.

Cmon man!

Most DO programs absolutely do not require a DO letter. The number that require it is decreasing every year. There are maybe 4 schools that REQUIRE one. Most schools do recommend one, but I would definitely rate it a "soft" suggestion more than a "hard" one.

 

[FourniersGreenGang]

It's actually been mentioned several times.

The problem is that the MD schools that open, because they need to be LCME accredited, need to provide their students with strong, teaching-hospital rotation sites with resident teams. DO schools have no such obligation, resulting in poorer quality of clinical education.

The number of residencies also is remaining constant.

The end result is that there are far more students competing for desirable residency positions... and many of these applicants are from the new MD schools, who, because of their superior clinical education, will beat out the DOs for desirable specialty spots.

So the fear is that more DOs than ever will be "funneled" into primary care, seriously limiting carreer options, and cementing the DO degree as a "primary care degree" and pigeonholing DO students. There are also many who fear that the proliferation of "subpar" DO schools will seriously hurt the reputation of the DO degree.

I might be wrong about this but I thought the lcme requirement was only for one rotation to be with residents. A lot of MD schools, probably even most, do provide all rotations at places with residents, but I think the newer schools do not really do this, and are essentially DO schools that grant the MD degree (with respect to clinical training). I think there are some of the more established DO schools with superior training to some of these newer schools, at least for some of their students, but by and large it is true that MD students get better clinical experience. I'm just trying to point out that it's not quite black and white.