Couldn't find what you looking for?

TRY OUR SEARCH!

Why a DO Degree May Limit Your Opportunities in Medicine 

by — Last updated: 2017-03-07 in Pre-med

Table of Contents

This article covers some of the similarities and differences between an MD degree and a DO degree. I will present some of the common misconceptions about each and help you decide which fundamental practice is right for you.

Differences Between an MD and DO Degree 

To get an MD degree, a medical student must be accepted to a Medical School accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and he can do this by scoring high on the MCAT exam. An MCAT score of 31.4 corresponds to the average score that students will be accepted to after applying.  This program is a 4-year program and during this process, a student must pass 3 different licensing exams in order to be able to begin Residency in a US program.  These exams are referred to as STEP 1, STEP 2 Clinical Knowledge, and STEP 2 Clinical Skills.  Once a student is accepted into a Residency Program, he will be able to apply for and take his final licensing examination referred to as STEP 3.  These exams test a physicians understanding of the medical material the he has learned in school and the score that a candidate gets on the exam corresponds to the type of residency that a student will be able to apply to.  In the United States, 67.4% of all currently practicing physicians are MDs.  Due to their high scores on exams, MD doctors are usually the specialists in the hospital setting. 

To get a DO degree, a medical student must take the MCAT exam and may not do as well as their MD counterparts.  The average score to get into a DO program on the MCAT is 25.31.  This program is also a 4-year program and during this process, a student faces 3 similar exams to STEP but these are called the COMLEX exams. Additionally, the student is required to learn 200 additional hours of manipulative training to learn how to treat musculoskeletal pain syndromes.  The scores on these exams correspond to the type of specialty that a doctor can apply to.  In the United States,  7.3% of all physicians hold a DO title.  These doctors often find themselves in Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine which are traditionally not as competitive as some of the more complex specialties like Dermatology, Ophthalmology, and Urology.  

In terms of quality, it is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between a DO and an MD doctor in the hospital setting.  More and more doctors are entering the wards as DOs and as their schooling improves, their training has become quite strong.  

During rotations, I was paired with some DO candidates and they were fully competent in managing patients as well as examining then. They even have interesting tricks that can help alleviate muscle cramping or other small ailments that do not need the NSAIDs that we are trained to administer.  

In my opinion, MDs could benefit from treating patients with more of a DO-approach.  Often times, you find that patients have some type of lifestyle choice or perhaps an accident that happened 20 years ago that could be a key component of their pain currently.  If MDs would consider that in managing patients, patients may not leave hospitals with 20 prescriptions for medications treating preexisting conditions.  As hospitals become more blending, maybe this exchange of knowledge will gradually happen as the two work side-by-side and the patients will reap the benefits of two styles of medicine.