The Whatever--Random Medical School Stuff

Panhandlegal
Tue, 04 Feb 2014 18:05:29 +0000

Turning to CC to clear up a question related to medical residencies…I’m told a hospital with which I am only remotely familiar is going to soon have a DO orthopedic residency residency. They’d wanted to have an MD residency program for orthopedics but didn’t meet the criteria. Not sure what those criteria are but they fell short.

Seems to contradict something I thought was factual: Residency programs for specialists are the same for MD’s and DO’s. I thought if I had a hip replacement, for example, performed by a DO he/she would have had the same residency/fellowship/specialist training as an MD orthopod. In this case, it implies qualifying for an MD residency program is more rigorous.

I always remember back to my undergrad days when those who were really bright matriculated into MD med schools. Those who were less bright went to DO med schools. Thought that had changed. Perhaps not.

Can somebody shed some light on the differences between DO/MD specialty care and their training. I’m not asking about the basic differences in philosophy between osteopathic and allopathic rather the specialist training.

Thanks in advance for clearing up a mystery for me!