Send us a text

Today on D.O. or Do Not, we venture slightly “off the path” to try and help medical students applying for residencies in the “new post-graduate education” system.

To give some historical background, there previously were separate residency programs sponsored by the American Osteopathic Association (DO) and the American College of Graduate Medical Education (MD). Graduates of osteopathic medical school could apply for either. In 2018, the ACGME and AOA merged, allowing one residency pathway for MDs and DOs.

According to the ACGME, the reasons for the merger were to:

-provide high-quality and uniform graduate medical education accreditation

-eliminate the need for programs to choose a pathway

-reduce cost and increase efficiencies

-provide consistency

-allow all US medical graduates (both DO and MD) a uniform graduate education pathway

-preserve and protect osteopathic medical education

-increase opportunities for osteopathic graduate medical education and recognition.

Although this merger was meant to simplify the application process and is an exciting step for equality for the osteopathic profession, it leaves many new questions for DO student applicants.

To prepare for this episode, the staff of D.O. or Do Not surveyed DO students to determine what the most common questions were regarding application to residency and the merger.   We decided to split the episode into two parts, interviewing a program director from a program that was previously AOA-certified and a program director from a historically allopathic residency.

In the first part of this episode, we interview Dr. Cindy Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman is a DO and the program director of the dermatology residency program at St. Barnabas Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in New York City. The program is affiliated with both Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

In the second part of this episode, we will speak with Dr. Kyle Katona. Dr. Katona is an MD and the associate program director for the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell residency program in internal medicine. The residency is a university-based program supported by one of the largest health care systems in the United States, Northwell Health. It is situated on the border between Queens and Nassau County on Long Island, New York, and cares for a diverse group of patients.