#mdvsdo

I never knew about all the different types of doctors.  I always thought a doctor was a doctor.  Then, I realized not every doctor had an MD on their name tag. 

The American Medical Association says that, in order to be a PHYSICIAN, one must be either a DO or an MD.  

To earn the MD degree, you go to an allopathic medical school.  Most medical colleges offer this degree, and most physicians in the United States (and the world) are MD's.

A DO is a physician that specializes in Osteopathic Medicine.  They go to Osteopathic medical schools.  There are fewer DO's than MD's in practice, and fewer DO schools.  

The difference, you ask?  Well, pretty much nothing besides the extra hundreds of hours of training that DO's undergo.  The extra training is in OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine).  Other than that, DO's and MD's are qualified to do all the same stuff in the United States.  In other words, MD's and DO's have an unlimited scope of practice.  As the number of medical school applicants increases, the less competitive DO schools have started to look more appealing to pre-med students.  You can get into most DO schools with around a 26-32 MCAT score, whereas most MD schools are 30 and up.  Don't forget to calculate GPA and other variables.     

There's another title I threw in the title of this post, DPM.  A DPM is a doctor of podiatric medicine, aka a podiatrist.  Podiatrists are defined as physicians of the foot, ankle, and lower extremities.  They do everything from wound care to gnarly surgeries that involve bone-saws (as long as it's foot, ankle, lower extremity).  I actually have around 20 hours shadowing a podiatrist in a private practice, and I have watched him do multiple surgeries - very cool stuff.  It's also cool that podiatry school is less competitive than MD or DO school, yet still offers a very rewarding career.  

So, when you're thinking about being a doctor, perhaps keep an open mind as to what type of doctor (other than a good doctor) you want to be.