<p>WOWM, what does this exactly mean? DO and allopathic med schools (ortho part) are the same now?</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with orthopedics. (A distinct “o” from osteopathy).</p>
<p>My understanding of this is that all residencies, regardless of DO or MD participants, will be held to the same standards. Previously, the standards might be different and therefore a residency program would be recognized by DOs but not MDs or vice versa. This has no bearing per se on medical and osteopathic schools and how they are run. It’s very confusing but in medicine, medical school is referred to as “undergraduate medical education” (not to be confused with your undergraduate education you did prior to medical school) while residency and fellowship training and beyond are “graduate medical education.”</p>
<p>I also believe this means all DOs are eligible for any residency an MD is eligible for, but I’m not sure if that means residencies are required to accept DOs.</p>
<p>Certainly this is another dagger in the foreign MD heart. It was already far better to pursue a DO than a foreign MD and now it’s even better.</p>
<p>IWBB has it right. Both osteopathic (DO) and allopathic (MD) programs have agreed to common set of residency standards and competencies. </p>
<p>MD and DO grads will be able to train at allopathic residencies; MD and DO grads will be able to train at osteopathic residencies. (MDs will be required to take X hours of training in OMM if they enter an osteopathic residency.)</p>
<p>Essentially this eliminates one of the biggest differences between a DO and MD in terms of medical practice.</p>
<p>It’s unclear right now how this will all work out in practice. Will DO’s eventually be expected to take the USMLE instead of the COMLEX? Will there be a combined match? Both appear to be likely in the near future.</p>
<p>My point is since DO is easier to get in, then the student can apply DO instead of MS if he/she wants to be a doctor about bones. Am I right?</p>
<p>osteopathy is not orthopedics.</p>
<p>DOs have lower average MCAT and GPA, but they also have a lower success rate in the match (~95% of US MD graduates match compared to ~85% of DOs). It will be interesting to see if this changes now and how.</p>
<p>A DO can do a ortho residency. DO programs have their own ortho residencies program already (though not as many proportionally as allopathic programs have). A DO can already enter allopathic ortho residency IF he/she takes the USMLE in addition to the COMPLEX and enters his/her name in the NRMP Match.</p>
<p>Ortho is a extremely competitive specialty regardless of whether one is a DO or MD. You need to be in the top 5% nationally on your standardized licensing exams to be competitive for an ortho residency. (Plus you need top grades in med school, ortho research during med school, and excellent LORs from your surgical and ortho attendings.)</p>
<p>So yes, a DO can study orthopedics, but it doesn’t mean it’s any easier for a DO get accepted to an orthopedic residency than it is for a MD. (In fact, it’s probably harder.)</p>
<p>Besides ortho, what other residencies can DO or MS do about bones?</p>
<p>The only medical specialty that deal specifically with bones is orthopedics.</p>
<p>(Actually orthopedics deals with more than just bones. It deals with the entire musculoskeletal system.)</p>
<p>If you want an overview of all the many medical specialties, read the descriptions here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://residency.wustl.edu/Choosing/SpecDesc/Pages/Home.aspx”>http://residency.wustl.edu/Choosing/SpecDesc/Pages/Home.aspx</a></p>
<p>I read the website about specialities. For ortho, the pay is ~$500K!! No wonder it is so competitive.</p>
<p>Just for my info, this $500K pay is excluding insurance, office renting, nurses etc, so it is net income? or it is including the expenses?</p>
<p>I don’t know if the $500K is a net or a gross income amount. </p>
<p>Another reason why ortho is so competitive is that there are only 600 available residency slots and about 22,000 allopathic med school grads each year. (Plus another 8,000 or so DO grads.)</p>
<p>Those numbers are usually after overheard (e.g. insurance, office rent, nurses) but pre tax, so yes, it is net income.</p>
<p>I believe that there are DO’s in regular residencies. D. has mentioned them few times. But D. has mentioned that their "rotation’ grade is largely depend on shelf exam score, while in D’s case, it can only lower the grade, but not improve it. I mean, if exam score is low then the grade will be lowered from the eval’s grade, but if the shelf exam is high, even very very high, it cannot bring the rotation grade up.</p>
<p>…incomes…we have 2 neighbors, the one next to us is an MD, the one acroos from us is DO. Apparently, they live in the same type of house, drive the same type of carss (although the DO’s are a bit on a more “up” scale", but it strictly depends on the taste and if one is prone to pursue “prestige/image”. MD has 2 kids - one is an engineer, another - resident (MD). DO has 5 kids, most likely all went to college (do not know details here. Wife does not work in both cases. I do not see ANY difference in life style. However, I think that DO has retired and they DID not more to the “warmer” ploace, unless they are looking. So, maybe difference is in ability to buy a second home(s).<br>
Otherwise, identical. But DO was able to produce and support 5 kids vs. 2 in MD case. 5 kids is un-imaginable for me. But again, this is strictly my prospective, since I like to pay out of pocket for everything, I do not like loans too much. </p>