I thought this was important enough to warrant it’s own thread.
Everyone is ACGME now
As a DO student looking to go into a competitive specialty, I’m not quite sure how this is going to effect the match as I was previously considering AOA as an option. And does this mean I just need to focus on COMLEX now? or will we all be taking the USMLE and DO students will have an extra OMM section? There’s a lot of details to work out.
Since you will be graduating in 2016…from what I gather, at that point there will be only one match, BUT you can apply to residencies that are currently DO, and you will be responsible for osteopathic competencies. However the DO residencies will be accredited by ACGME, and the AOA will be a member of the ACGME organization. What I do not know ( and what I don’t think THEY know yet) is whether there will still be two systems of testing, COMLEX and USMLE. I expect by 2014 when you have to take step 1, they will have worked that out, but not sure about when you need to start studying. I’d say, figure on starting with First Aid in any case and decide later whether to go with USMLE world or COMBANK for questions.
Kate
This is awesome. If it does go to one exam that will be something. Since I plan on taking my first step exam in 5 years I will know something then. lol
They could do only one exam plus omm portion only for osteopathic students.
I am also wandering about this - allopathic graduates will be able to get into currently osteopathic residency - so what about omm? will they be able to get some additional classes to learn it ?
Whether or not allopathic residents get OMM training will be largely dependent on the DO faculty available to train. About half of all family med programs are dually accredited, so there are already systems in place to train MDs who want to incorporate OMM. How it shakes out with the rest of the programs is still up in the air. Stay tuned…AAFP program director’s workshop is next month and it looks like this is on the agenda. I’ll post when I know more.
Looking forward to hearing more. Thanks jmdmd.
The President of the COMLEX came by our school this week. He was quite adamant that combining of the boards was unlikely.
In paraphrase, COMLEX questions are brief vignettes where you are supposed to diagnose the likely issue, and then answer a “3rd order” question about treatment, labs or something related to what you’d do as a physician to move forward after seeing that patient.
USMLE questions are longer, more detailed and have buzzwords. But the question will be directed more specifically at details of biochemistry, pathology, imaging, etc.
As a 1st year, I have no idea how much of either is true, but I’m planning on taking both. 