<p>Well aside from the difference in the name of a DO and a MD. What are the differences between the two? Can only one of the two be a surgeon? Can only one of the two be in general practice? Is there a pay difference between the two because of their titles or their positions in the medical field(suregeon, er doctor, pediatrician etc)</p>
<p>Osteopathic medicine is practiced by D.O.s in the United States. Osteopathic medicine was developed in 1874 by Dr. A.T. Still who stated “Any variation from health has a cause, and the cause has a location. It is the business of the osteopathic physician to locate and remove it, doing away with the disease and getting healthy instead.” He believed that many medications (at that time) were useless and even harmful. He identified the musculoskeletal system as a key component for good health.</p>
<p>Yes, that is the orgin of DO schhols, but nowadays DO schools have the same scope of practice (including surgery) and rights as MDs. They essentially get the same training, save that DOs do a little bit of spinal manipulation that is for the most part vestigial. DO students can even go into the same residency programs as MD students, and quite a few do. DO schools do tend to send most of their students into primary care, but I feel like this has more to do with their students than with any overt pressure.</p>
<p>ITA with mmmcdowe.</p>
<p>I’d add that DOs are much more common in some parts of the country than others. For this reason, while their ability to practice and their access to specialty training is in principle the same as MDs’, they may still (unless things have changed while I wasn’t paying attention) face some bias against them in parts of the country where there are relatively few DOs. I don’t think this is necessarily fair, but I think it is still the case–or, as least, was the case in the '90s when my wife was in medical school and residency.</p>
<p>If things have improved for doctors of osteopathy, I’ll be happy to stand corrected.</p>
<p>I agree with the posters above. </p>
<p>I do have one caution to add. While it appears to me that all US based MD schools provide excellent career training from top to bottom, I’m not as sure about some of the lesser DO schools. The top of the DO schools? No problem. The bottom makes me a little nervous. If I was a student, I’d want to check their student outcomes out in depth.</p>
<p>Also, when I researched them specifically, some were quite expensive, way more than a state MD school with no grant aid.</p>
<p>I would be careful to research the school choices carefully and ensure you don’t inadvertently apply to one that is over-priced and under-reputed as that wold leave a person with huge loans and potential issues passing the boards and getting solid residency.</p>
<p>I had an interesting conversation with a premed student the other day. He told me that a relative of his who was an M.D. advised him to go to a “reputable” school (eg. USC) in a P.A. program rather than attend a D.O. college. After that, he exhibited interest in Caribbean MD programs.</p>
<p>The entire conversation struck me as surreal. Other than some new D.O. schools which haven’t been in operation long enough to tell, as far as I can see the graduates of established American DO schools pass the medical boards and match into residencies and become doctors at close to the same rate as graduates of American MD schools, while Caribbean matriculants seem to have a horrendous attrition ratio and serious trouble matching into US residencies if they do graduate and pass the exams. I don’t know why one would choose to become a PA instead of a DO since the latter has all the same practice rights as an MD and the former doesn’t, although the PA program is 3 years instead of 4. I really don’t see why anyone would choose a Caribbean MD program over an American DO program.</p>
<p>I don’t know the cost issues (in California the tuition at our state medical schools is over $30K/yr, and I don’t know what kind of financial aid is available.)</p>
<p>
A tuition for over $30K/yr is almost the same the as the “full-pay” tuition of a typical private college!</p>
<p>kluge, that would be the MD bias leaking through, it also demonstrates that being a physician does not make you an up-to-date expert on all things pertaining to medicine. It is possible that, when that physician applied to medical school, it was different.</p>
<p>The only field that I have seen many DO schools weak in is surgery. The fact is that tmany of the schools and hospitals are new, and it takes a lot of time to build a surgery program.</p>
<p>See the 2010 DO residency match data for 1444 DO grads who matched into residencies (table 11, page 21) and match rate data (figure 4, page 12) at: <a href=“http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>Combining the NRMP data with the AOA match data (since DO medical programs have their own match which is separate from the NRMP one - [AOA</a> Intern/Resident Registration Program](<a href=“http://www.natmatch.com/aoairp/index.htm]AOA”>http://www.natmatch.com/aoairp/index.htm)) seems to yield about an 80+% overall match rate for DO’s (3135 total matches for 3845 DO graduates in 2010) compared to 90+% for American MDs and ~50% for US citizens attending foreign MD schools from Table 4 of the NRMP website. I assume (but don’t know) the majority of the US/foreign MD graduates are Caribbean. And in addition to the match there’s a “scramble” which apparently is an avenue by which unmatched job seekers fill positions which went unfilled in the match. I don’t know anything about the scramble - do Caribbean MD’s fare better there?</p>
<p>DO’s in the NRMP match obtain a wide variety of residency positions; over half of all DO’s in the NRMP match to internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics.</p>
<p>DO’s enter the AOA ([AOA Intern/Resident Registration Program](<a href=“http://www.natmatch.com/aoairp/index.htm”>http://www.natmatch.com/aoairp/index.htm</a>)) match have access to a subset of residencies available to senior AMG’s entering the NRMP.</p>
<p>MD bias, for better or worse, does exist: MD’s occupy most of the seats on hospital credentialing committees, peer review committees and medical executive committees. Virtually all hospital bylaws specify identical application and privileging procedures for DO’s and MD’s, so the practical import of MD bias is limited.</p>
<p>US born FMG’s receive additional scrutiny.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I recently talked to a premed adviser, and I was told that the MD/DO bias is about fifteen years old and does not exist. My uncle who is a Systems Engineer at a hospital originally thought that bias was true, but he recently told me that is was not true after talking to some of the doctors and noticing that the MD to DO ratio was practically 1 to 1.</p>
<p>I think your #13 overstates the case somewhat. For one thing there are a LOT fewer DO’s than MDs. More relevantly, I think DO’s should be prepared to face some bias relative to American MD’s. Not enough that you should avoid the career because of it, but you should be aware that there will be a little bit.</p>