re: The Test that Grades Doctors, the Elite Wants to Nerf that Too

What blows me away in my part of East Texas is a Physicians Assistant who advertises on radio being able to do all sorts of stuff like hormone replacement, sexual disfunction and all sorts of things seemingly complicated and nuanced work. I just shake my head. There has to be a physician in the loop somewhere I'd hope? But to argue about the equivalence of an MD to a DO is a little myopic. There are now the Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practitioners out there in the mix.

DOs get the same medical education + Osteopathic manipulative training.

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At present an LSU 3rd-year with a great Step 1 score is treated preferentially over a Duke or Yale 3rd-yr with an average score. Take the scores away, and the same LSU applicant will be underselected for residency.

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Maybe a feature to some? Somebody has to keep the upstarts down. It’s what authoritarian elitists—do.

Pointing to bigotry in the residency match process to justify a bigoted view that DOs are incapable or less academically inclined is laughably short sighted.

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DOs should want a USMLE to be as objective as possible to not reduce opportunities.

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100%.
Falling away from that standard would be a game changer for DOs. It would really hurt those folks.

You ever hang out with med school kids? There is a reason some of them flunk out. There is also a reason some of them never get past the Step exams. There is a further reason why the actual licensing exams after step 3 are so goddamn stressful.

frick this lowest common denominator shite. What the hell happened to being the best and the brightest? I dont want some jack leg operating on my inevitable open heart who is only there because of lower standards.

This probably wont get very far though. Good Doctors are an ornery bunch.

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who is likely to be a better doctor than I ever will, barely passed (test anxiety) and will likely never get their specialty of choice now

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Not being mean, but "test anxiety" translates in other ways.
"Test anxiety" translates to intraoperative debilitating panic when an aortic root falls apart during cannulation.
"Test anxiety" translates to dysfunctional collapse when a patient needs an emergent airway.
"Test anxiety" translates to procedural failure when a coronary dissection occurs during a cardiac cath.
"Test anxiety" translates to freezing up during a code.

It is what it is.

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"Test anxiety" translates to intraoperative debilitating panic when an aortic root falls apart during cannulation.
"Test anxiety" translates to dysfunctional collapse when a patient needs an emergent airway.
"Test anxiety" translates to procedural failure when a coronary dissection occurs during a cardiac cath.
"Test anxiety" translates to freezing up during a code.

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And a more diverse medical community would effectively mitigate this through shared experiences.

There is also some data manipulation that occurs due to the allopathic and osteopathic match being two separate entities with dissimilar timing. Many DO grads would like to apply to multiple residencies both allopathic and osteopathic. But since osteopathic match date is earlier (at least when I went through) many commit to osteopath residencies and are not considered further for the allopathic match. Thus they entered but didnt match (allopathic) making data look bad.