[H] Grad school advice - Page 2

Entropic

Canada2837 Posts

August 10 2010 05:39 GMT

#21

On August 10 2010 14:34 Track wrote:
What exactly is the difference between DO and MD? Is MD the more prestigious degree?

... at least I get to use this now.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=difference between MD and DO

Track

United States217 Posts

August 10 2010 06:30 GMT

#22

Well, what I really wanted was a real person evaluation, ie what the actual hospital/employer preferences are, rather than a textbook definition that I already looked up

ieatkids5

United States4628 Posts

August 10 2010 08:42 GMT

#23

The DO curriculum is more difficult because more material is covered. A DO learns/does everything an MD does, and some more.
Practice: In general, you could say that an MD is a regular doctor who listens to what symptoms you have, then gives you something to treat that symptom, while a DO takes into consideration a more holistic view of your lifestyle and well-being before suggesting how to treat it (should include stuff like diet, sleeping habits, moods, etc). IMO DOs are much better doctors than MDs, but that's just my view of how people should be treated. Most people I've talked to (peers, students, aunts/uncles) have never heard of a DO before, but in the professional medical field, you'll have equal or higher standing than an MD.

LosingID8

CA10832 Posts

August 10 2010 13:53 GMT

#24

On August 10 2010 17:42 ieatkids5 wrote:
but in the professional medical field, you'll have equal or higher standing than an MD.

what? i've never heard of that

i respect every health field professional but i've never heard anything close to what you have said.

yes in some cases you may have equal standing but almost never higher. if DOs had higher standing than MDs, why did it take them decades to finally achieve equal legal rights? and why do almost all top DO students try to go into an MD residency?

i mean i'm against elitism because in the end the letters after your name don't matter as long as you're able to work as a team of professionals to help better a patients life, but MD definitely carries more prestige than a DO simply because the degree existed first and thus the admission standards are more stringent.

radar14

United States1437 Posts

August 10 2010 16:26 GMT

#25

I agree with LosingID8.

@ieatkids5: You are making many generalizations. Any primary care physician, whether MD or DO, will need to take into account a patient's lifestyle and social issues before deciding on a plan of action. To claim a "holistic" approach as purely osteopathic is misleading. Functionally, MDs and DOs will be essentially equivalent in whatever job they end up doing. The challenge for DO's is that they will traditionally have a harder time getting into residencies in more competitive fields (i.e. not primary care). It is usually the DOs closer to the top of their class (and who took the MD boards) who will compete for non-primary care residency spots. As LosingID8 said, that is simply an extension of the fact that it is more competitive to get into an MD school.

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