MD vs DO: Which One Should You Choose? From the Perspective of a DO in Plastic Surgery

DO vs MD: what's the difference, which one should you choose, and why I chose to become a DO. There's still a lot of confusion about DOs who represent osteopathic medicine and MDs who represent allopathic medicine, so this video serves to educate and dispel some myths.
#MDvsDO #DOvsMD #osteopathicmedicine #premed #premedadvice #premedicalstudent #plasticsurgery #womeninsurgery #ProudDO
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I am Dr. Danielle Ward, a Plastic Surgery resident physician sharing my journey through medicine and beyond. I hope to use my channel to help premedical and medical students alike, while showing that it is also possible to have a life outside of residency. I am a single mother, former nontraditional premedical student, and I experienced the pain of not matching into residency more than once before landing into my dream specialty, so hopefully anyone will be able to find something on my page they can relate to.
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[@pseudoname5936]

Great that you got in, but the statistics don't lie. While DOs can match into any residency, they are most likely not going to at anywhere near the same proportion as MDs. For example, this most recent match only had 3 DO (1.4%) match into plastics (integrated) compared to 188 MD (88.3%). In fact, no DO matched into plastics (integrated) last year. Like you mentioned, there could be some stigma against DOs. However, most DO schools cannot give the sheer amount of resources (committed rotations, research opportunities, notable/well known connections, etc) that MD schools can which gives them a huge leg up. A DO plastic surgeon is every bit as great as an MD, no question. However, the issue is for a DO student to get to be that plastic surgeon. Generally, if a pre-med wants to match into a competitive specialty, they should go to a MD school. However, this doesn't account for their preference or if they have the stats to get accepted into one (which is generally why they go the DO route). Moreover, there is an overwhelming trend for DOs to go into IM, FM, etc.

[@minoritydoctor]

I think you're overlooking the fact that a lot of DOs simply aren't applying which could be why the numbers are so low as well. It is correct that no DO matched last year, but if you look at the numbers, only 5 DOs actually applied to plastic surgery. I hate that they count themselves out before they even start, but negative perceptions definitely don't help. I also absolutely don't believe you need to go to an MD school to match competitively. At the end of the day, the work needs to be put in whether MD or DO.

[@pseudoname5936]

​@@minoritydoctor I did state that most DOs go the IM, FM, etc route. 16 applied not 5. A large reason can be that those in DO schools already have a large preference for the aforementioned fields, don't see themselves as competitive based on their app and resources, and that DO schools' curriculum is largely family/internal/etc medicine focused by design. Like I mentioned, you don't have to go into an MD school to go into X specialty, but you have an overwhelming leg up be it bc those in MD are already higher achieving, resources from their schools, notable mentors, etc. That's what pre-meds should consider when deciding MD vs DO. For example, I am currently interested in neurosurgery (neuro-oncology and/or neuro-vasculature), and the resources and well known staff at my school will prepare me well. I have a research project that will hopefully lead to a patent and into a great journal as well as other research project opportunities in spades while I know that's not the norm in a DO school.