DO Family Sports med vs MD Family Sports med

[omagic]

Hey guys I had a question.

Are MD Family Sports medicine physicians at a disadvantage when compared to DO Family Sports medicine physicians? Esp since MD's don't receive OMM training? (In terms of qualifications, in terms of patients preferring a DO over an MD sports doc, in terms of sports med positions being open to DO's over MD's)

Thank you

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[teacherman84]

No. Outside of DO schools, the supreme MSK know-how that comes with OMM is largely ignored.
MD is still the more common degree, so if anyone is at a disadvantage it would likely be the DO.
There might be some patients who know omm and would seek out a DO specifically but I doubt it happens often.

 

[j4pac]

The benefit of OMT experience is not the treatments...it's the extra experience with body mechanics and palpation.

 

[melancholy]

Hey guys I had a question.

Are MD Family Sports medicine physicians at a disadvantage when compared to DO Family Sports medicine physicians? Esp since MD's don't receive OMM training? (In terms of qualifications, in terms of patients preferring a DO over an MD sports doc, in terms of sports med positions being open to DO's over MD's)

Thank you

In the highest level of athletic competition (professional sports, olympics), you see sports physicians of either degree, MD or DO. It doesn't matter unless whoever is hiring is biased towards or against.

Someone who goes through DO school will have a few hundred hours of hands on evaluation and treatment and possibly more focus on anatomy earlier in med school. Many lose their OMT skills when they go into internship/residency unless they work hard to keep skills up. There may still be some inherent additional MSK exposure and hands on training that could be useful in a variety of specialties. I've seen MD's who have learned OMT skills and use them in regular practice. I've seen DO's who never believed in the stuff and think it is hooey.

In the end, I think it comes down to how motivated someone is to gain training they believe will help them provide better care and continue to cultivate that as they continue to practice. The label is not as important as it used to be many years ago. I think most patients don't care or discriminate - some patients may not even know if their doctor is an MD or DO.

 

[septoplasty]

FWIW, I just finished training at a D1 school, never did we ever use/require OMT, sooo moot point potentially.

For private practice, as a PCSM, it might be a useful modality, but obviously been exposed to it by my DO colleagues, based on the time/effort/compensation of it, I don't see it as an efficient way to utilize my time, so again, moot point.

 

[melancholy]

Agree- it will never be worth the compensation or time unless you build a cash only OMT practice.


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[superfan56]

I was at a D1, ACGME program and used it almost every session. I told the trainers that before they send to chiro to have me try first. I honestly think if you're not doing OMT as a DO, you're really missing out on #1 easily billable procedures and #2 immediate symptomatic relief and #3 from a marketing perspective, given that chiro's are so abundant in our field, to have a one stop shop is really a good selling point of a practice. You dont have to spend 30 minutes a treatment, if you can do HVLA you can literally do 9-10 body regions in 2 minutes if you want. These OMT procedures dont take long. If you don't offer OMT, you don't really offer anything different in the realm of sports medicine compared to MD's. I'm not a flag waving OMM person, but it is a useful modality in the tool box that can help patients and does increase your procedural billing. The time it takes me to pop a rib back into place or do sacral muscle energy is less than the time it takes for me to set up and enter the patient information in the ultrasound. Not to say that OMT is the fix all for everything, but in my opinion, its a unique skillset that differentiates us from MDs and Chiros. To have the ability of both worlds is uniqly DO. Just my two cents.

In regards to DO vs MD fellowship, do whatever one feels right. I chose MD that allowed me to do OMM independently.