The pathways to become a DO or an MD: Subtle Differences

The medical curriculum of MD and DO is very similar except that DO students receive an extra 200 hours of training in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) and one month core-clerkship of OMM in their 3rd year of medical school. Upon graduation, physicians are required to complete one year internship and will be eligible for full licensure to practice medicine and surgery. This old rule or law is still in effect across the country. However, the reality is much different than what is in the law book. As there are more regulations imposed by healthcare insurance companies, physicians have to be board-eligible or certified, i.e, physicians must have completed residency program, in order to be on the insurance panels.

The DO profession/ Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education (OGME) still requires its physicians-in-training to complete a year of rotating internship or an internship with emphasis track to their respective residency specialties. The MD profession/ Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has eliminated the internship year for most specialties, with a few exception, in which the specialties are too specialized like ophthalmology, orthopedics, radiology, pathology and etc.

Therefore, DOs pursuing a residency in OGME programs may take an extra year more than pursuing a residency ACGME program. For instance, Emergency medicine requires 4 years of training in OGME and only 3 years in ACGME program.

Moreover, there are still five states (MI, PA,OK, WV, and FL) that require AOA- approved internship for medical licensure eligibility. Some of these state osteopathic boards may be very stringent in their application of the old rule.

Finally, the continuing medical education (CME) that physicians have to take throughout the years in order to keep up with the renewal process of their license. The CME requirements varies from state to state. Some states (IN, NY,CO, MN, SD, VT) require no CME. Most states require about 25-30 CME hours per year for both MDs and DOs. However, in California, DOs are required 50 CME hours per year in comparison of 25 CME hours required for their counterpart MDs.