Are DOs happy?

"If you actually researched topic, you'll find what the residents and attendings are saying about this topic. Historically, DO started off as a split from MD by a guy who wanted to focus on outdated practices of osteopathy and "treating patient as a whole". Then later with the advent of something called evidence-based medicine, MD grew stronger while osteopathy started becoming obsolete. Many good DO schools do follow EBM while keeping OMM as an elective, so from a practical purpose, what MD and DO physicians do are identical.

Then came the merger, which is really just ACGME acquiring AOA residencies. The top DO schools are capable of sending graduates to ACGME residencies, except for some ultracompetitive specialties. The poorer DO schools that easily pop up and expand are likely wiped out by the acquisition.

So, really from an outsider perspective, there is no difference. For residency perspective, there is some to significant difference and why US MD > US DO."

First, let me point out that you don't have to be a physician to be happy, much less a MD or a DO. Also, MD vs DO has pretty much been beaten to death already so you can choose who to believe.

However, I'm seeing far too many people saying "everything is the same except DO approaches holistic" or something to this effect as if MD's throw patients out of the door after chucking an antibiotic at them while DO's hold their hands, which is not true. If a DO is working in a hospital as a GI, then he's doing the same thing as the MD GI. Practice wise, there is no difference.

The real emphasis of the difference between the two is on the residency. Of course you'll always get this, "oh, my friend's dad is a DO and his a neurosurgeon who makes 2 mil working 3 days a week" anecdotes. But the real truth is that given the same test scores and grades, residencies will take MD over DO any day. You have all of these people saying, "I chose DO because of their ideologies" but the truth is that the vast majority of DO's go to DO because they weren't competitive for MD schools. Like they say, if there is no difference between the two, why go to the one that's severely disadvantaged in residency matching?

And also, these "dinosaur" physicians that the DO students here are bashing are going to be your attending and the most experienced colleagues. Yes, they may have an outdated idea but to say that they are irrelevant is just simply not true. Furthermore, the real problem isn't what people in the medical field thinks about DO vs MD. The real crippling bias you may face as a DO is from the patients.

My advice to you is, DOs are awesome and can do anything a MD can do. But, if you get in a MD schools, no reason to put yourself in a disadvantage.

/r/premed Thread