fellowship question for D.O.'s

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MOZ D.O.

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if one does a osteopathic internal medicine residency would he/she still be able to do a fellowship at an allopathic institution, such as in cardiology or gi?

MOZ D.O.

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Yes DO's can do MD fellowships. We currently have a DO GI fellow and a DO cardiology fellow at our institution. I believe, as someone stated on this board before, that MD's cannot do DO fellowships. I wonder why?

Pat
 
That's not the question Moz is asking.

Unfortunately, I can't provide an answer either. :( I believe that there are certain ACGME-accredited fellowships that will allow a graduate of an AOA-accredited residency to apply. However, it's probably the exception more than the rule.

I'm starting an ACGME Internal Medicine residency program in July. My main reasons for choosing this path were:

1) Higher quality of IM training.
2) Greater fellowship opportunities.
3) No desire to do a pointless extra year as a rotating intern.

If you are considering fellowship, IMHO, an osteopathic internal medicine residency is not the way to go. Good AOA-accredited IM residencies are few and far between, and fellowship opportunities even less so.
 
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Yes you can do an MD fellowship from a DO IM residency. I've met plenty of attendings who have done just that, and to back up what the last poster said - everytime one of these attendings asks if I am doing a DO or MD residency, and I tell them MD, they all agree with my decision, and even tell me that in front of other students pursuing DO IM residencies, embarassingly enough. I believe this in more due to the opportunities available through the allopathic vs the osteopathic hospital that they said that, not so much that it was a poor program.
It was the best decision I ever made and one I know I will not look back upon. But i should add I am interested in doing a fellowship. If I was doing general medicine I think most DO IM residencies would be just fine. But again to answer your question, yes you can get into an MD fellowship from a DO place. I e-mailed several PDs in the fellowship I am pursuing last year, and as you know they all can be competitive. A few told me they basically have so many qualified MD trained applicants (i.e. MD and DO) that they sometimes don't feel the need to see someone from a DO residency. These were programs with DOs there, so it wasn't an anti-DO thing.
 
I would agree that several years ago when some fellowships spots were wanting for warm bodies they were taking DO's from AOA residency. If you are interested now in fellowship (particularly Cards or GI) I'd go the ACGME route. Keep in mind that when applying for fellowship, many programs interview candidates only from prestigeous (or atleast University affiliated) programs. Think they'll interview someone from Boondock's County Hospital... Also, even though there are fellowship spots available in the AOA world, these are very limited in number and scope. Why limit yourself?

The other issue that'd make the transition tough is board exams. I wouldn't be able to sit for the cardiology boards without first being board certified in internal medicine (by the ABIM). I doubt there's an arrangement to allow fellows to take an MD subspecialty board exam without first passing the ABIM... And you can't take the ABIM certifying exam without first doing an ACGME IM program.
 
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