Osteopathic Medicine

[Guest thatuvicguy]

Is anyone on these boards applying to Osteopathic schools? I know there is a forum through the SDN site but it seems to be predominantly frequented by American students. Nonetheless, I may post a version of this there later.

 

The more I read about it, the more viable osteopathy seems - I'm geared towards family med, my wife is American, I previously considered chiropractic, my GPA is good but not earth-shattering, etc. I think I will give Canadian schools a shot first, but may include the West Coast osteopathic schools in my second round of applications (if necessary).

 

While it seems that there may be some hurdles/limitations (varying from province to province) associated with practicing med as an osteopath in Canada, my impression is that there are even fewer osteopaths in Canada than one would expect. Do very few Canadians apply? Do very few Canadians matriculate? Both? Do most stay in the States after graduation?

 

Also, most schools request that you have shadowed an osteopath - must be hard to fulfill for Canadians when there are none around?!

 

I may need to dig around for these answers but thought I'd put the questions out there anyways...

 

Cheers,

thatuvicguy

[Guest Ian Wong]

It's a completely unknown quantity in Canada. No one here knows what a DO degree is.

 

If you go to the US for DO school, then you will likely be applying for residencies in the US as well (I would imagine it to be nearly impossible to secure a Canadian residency through CaRMS as a DO). The trouble then is obtaining a visa to stay in the US for training. The J-1 visa requires you to come back to Canada for two years post-residency, and if you can't get Canadian board certified, then you literally might be delivering pizzas for those two years to make all your interest payments. If you get an H1-B visa, then you could stay in the US, but one of the requirements for getting that visa is having written all three steps of the USMLE board exam, which you'd have to do on top of your osteopathic exams. I know that MD's are eligible for the H1-B visas, and would assume DO's are as well, but who knows?

 

I wouldn't discount US MD schools. I think there's a huge number of benefits to going US MD versus US DO, particularly as a Canadian citizen if you have any aspirations about practising in Canada in the future. One huge advantage is that US MD schools are LCME-accredited, and MD residencies are ACGME accredited. Both of these accreditations are crucially important when trying to get Canadian Royal College board certification (and neither DO schools, nor DO residencies meet these criteria). I too follow the DO discussions on SDN, and I really don't see the huge advantages that the DO students tout. Obviously, as I've never studied in a DO school, my opinions can't count for much, but still.

 

MD students are supposed to treat the entire patient as an entity as well, so to say that DO's somehow have a monopoly on this is just wrong. As far as OMM goes, #1 there's not a lot of good research to show that it works, #2 by way of our wonderful Canada Health Act, good luck getting reimbursed for doing that in Canada, although obviously in the US it's a different story, #3 it's simply not applicable in a lot of non-primary care fields (you won't see folks in Path, Rads, Anesthesiology, most surgical fields, Derm, Ophtho doing that because it simply doesn't fit within the context of the specialty).

 

You will have far more practice options coming out of a US MD school than a DO school (greater and more competitive access to specialties, greater flexibility in coming back to Canada and achieving licensure, and a larger network of physicians from which to draw upon when starting up your practice). Unless you are absolutely dedicated to training in OMM, I would strongly advise giving the US allopathic programs a look before going DO.

 

Ian

[Guest moo]

Well I agree with Ian, but I would like to add that if your wife is American, then shouldn't you be able to get at least a green card, hence solving all of your problems? What I mean is, worst case scenario is you stay in America after...

 

I know there is a DO in Victoria by the name of Dr. Church (who is an FP), and I would imagine there'd be several others in Canada. I think someone mentioned there is a DO on staff at U Calgary as well, but don't quote me on that.

 

DOs are a viable route if: you have US PR and don't mind staying in the US after, and are absolutely sure you want to do primary care. In fact, I'd pick a DO school over a Caribbean MD any day, since with a Caribbean MD, you'd most likely be working in America afterward anyway.

 

One more thing, if you are thinking of applying to Western/COMP, I'd seriously reconsider it. My friend here in med school is from So Cal and has said nothing good about that school. Their administration is in disarray and you have to seriously set up your own rotations, they don't pay for your meals when you're on call, etc.. If you do a search on SDN you'll find some old threads on it. The other DO school in California, TUCOM, is run by a Jewish school based in New York and is more reputable, even though it's only been around since the mid-90s. I suggest you apply there instead.

[Guest thatuvicguy]

Thank you Ian and moo for your insightful responses. I have contacted the College to get the goods on the implications of the DO degree in terms of CaRMS and limitations (if any) on practice upon licensing in BC as an Osteopathic physician (e.g., reimbursement for OMM, etc). Thanks for the tip on Dr.Church - I will contact him as well since he is indeed listed in the white pages as an osteopath (though not under Physicians in the yellow pages...).

 

My reasons for considering DO before seriously looking at US MD programs is likely due to lack of information. I will post one of my chief concerns in a new thread since it is not directly related to the DO topic.

 

thanks again

thatuvicguy

[Guest blackbox]

I would appreciate if you could post the answers to some of the questions you are seeking out, especially if Dr.Church would be open to having pre-DO students shadow him.

 

your questions are similar to mine, and I'd like your feedback.

 

thanks!

 

Kyle