D.O. degree

Many people bash, down-play, and even insult the D.O. medical degree. Maybe someone can explain their reasoning to me, because I just don't understand it. For those that don't know, the M.D. = D.O. with legal abilities inside the United States.

Sure there are some minor set-backs that D.O. degree holders will have to battle, but I consider them minor. Let's consider these set-backs first.

1. Outside the United States, some countries do not recognize the D.O. degree. This means you can not practice medicine in some countries. If you plan on practicing medicine inside the U.S. your entire life, this does not affect you. If you want to do mission work, you need to research which countries accept D.O. degree holders.

2. Specialty selection. There is still some stigma against D.O. students. This means that D.O. students need to work especially hard to get competitive specialties. However, if your future plans involve primary care (ob/gyn, family, internal med, psych, peds), you will not have a problem. Other well-reachable fields include general surgery, anesthesia, pathology, emergency medicine, neurology, radiology, ortho surgery, and PM&R. These fields require some pretty good scores and possibly research, but I know many D.O.'s in these fields. The real problem that D.O. students have is attaining fields like dermatology, ophthalmology, radiation oncology, ENT, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, and urology. I'm not saying that these fields are impossible for D.O. students because nothing is impossible. I'm just saying that I don't personally know of any D.O. to have ever entered these fields. Regardless of D.O. or M.D. if you want to enter the most competitive fields, you better work like never before and be prepared to sell a couple fingers/kidneys to the black market. Ok, maybe not that far.

3. I have also heard of some people refusing to see D.O. physicians for medical care. While some people are closed-minded, this is not the majority. I know this because specialty for specialty average salaries are relatively equivalent for D.O.'s and M.D.'s alike.

The only qualm I have about the D.O. degree is that some new D.O. schools do not plan their new schools very well. I would be wary about attending a brand-new D.O. school because I have seen some fail where I have never seen a new M.D. school fail before. Still, many new D.O. schools flourish too. I have heard very good things about DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, only in their 2nd year. Most new M.D. schools are based out of excellent undergraduate schools, and they have all the funds and name-recognition to help them excel. Thus I believe new M.D. schools have the clear advantage here. While all students complain, new M.D. schools seem to excel from year 1 universally.

In Texas, we have TCOM, and from what I have heard and seen, it is an excellent school. I have seen their top-notch labs, their quality curriculum, and alumni excel in all aspects of medicine. Would I trust a TCOM grad with my medical care - of course.

Would I recommend my children attend an M.D. school before a D.O. school? Yes, I would, but only because most D.O. schools are very costly (a couple exceptions) compared to allopathic state schools. Still I recommend everyone applying to med school to apply both M.D. and D.O. Putting off med school by applying M.D. in year 1 -failing, and applying to both program the next year because you didn't want to deal with the stigmas, just lost you $200,000+ in future earnings by being stubborn in that 1 year.