What is osteopathic medicine?

Different schools with different accreditation agencies. DO's often complete allopathic residencies, although there are also osteopathic residencies. The biggest difference is that DO schools are easier to get into, but they have to pass the same tests (or equivalent) to complete their training.

There are some other differences, especially if you want to practice outside of the US. Also, Anyone who attends a Caribbean school or foreign medical school will still have "MD" after their name, so at least you know that a "DO" was trained in the US without looking up any more information.

Can you break down in laymans terms what the key differences in classes one would take between taking an osteopathic route and an allopathic route?

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Can you break down in laymans terms what the key differences in classes one would take between taking an osteopathic route and an allopathic route?

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Virtually the same. However, DO schools require classes on osteopathic manipulation bullshite. It's also covered on their tests. Most study it to pass the test, then never use it again. DO schools also tend to have less supervised and more spread out 3rd and 4th year rotations, often requiring traveling to different cities. All my MD rotations were in the same city with the same Attendings. At the end of the day though, most training is received in residency and fellowship.

Please don't gay up my thread with your politics

TIA

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wanted to see if the general consensus is that these DOs were legit or snake oil salesmen who just couldn't get into med school.

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FWIW, people get into MD schools (even the best ones) that have no business ever treating patients either due to personality or academic issues. Med schools also do a pretty poor job of weeding out these students, and most people that begin medical school will graduate. Some doctors also seem very knowledgeable, but are not good at their jobs. This is especially true of surgeons. All the training in the world can't help some people. If you have ever have concerns about a doctor, get a second opinion or ask another physician if you know one.

It means bone doctor dummy.

Yeah . DO school grads may have had lower scores out of college. No one chooses DO over MD (unless it's over the Caribbean schools). There are a few well known DO that are respected but several are meh.

Either way, wouldn't worry about the do/md moniker too much. How we practice medicine is more.dictated by where we do residency moreso than the school we went to.

There's been more talk recently to merge the DO/MD residencies into one oversight agency. To have equal standards between the two residencies.

DOs do everything MDs do treatment wise, but they also incorporate more non-medicine techniques such as stretching and massage.

I prefer DOs to MDs.
DOs also tend to be younger.

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The next time someone chooses DO over even an average med school will be the first time.

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Not entirely true. Acceptance to schools like PCOM in Philly is highly competitive. Many people that go there chose it over MD schools. To assume that everyone in a DO school is a med school reject is pretty ignorant.