Caribbean Medical schools

General Questions
#1

A co-worker’s father is in the hospital. He mentioned that the primary care physician had perhaps let his condtion go untreated for some time, allowing it to get worse and put him in the ICU. This led to jokes about where the doctor trained, which led us to Caribbean medical schools.

OK, question:

  1. What does it take to practice in the US after graduating from one of these schools?
    And some opinion:
    Would you trust a doctor if you discovered s/he attended that kind of school? Is the training below par, or just the admission standards? My primary care doctor is a DO not an MD, which is I suppose rather non-traditional. She is a fine doctor and I trust her completely.

Anyway, thanks for the answer. I put this here because I have an actual question, but if the opinion part requires it to be moved, my apologies to the mods.

#2

What’s a DO?

#3

A DO is a Doctor of Osteopathy. My doctor’s new partner is an MD, and i can see little differnece in the way they treat patients (I’ve seen both of them). There’s different training and perhpas a little different philosophy behind the training, and, DOs are also chriopracters. Mine has never offered to crack my back to fix any complaint, so that doesn’t bother me. :wink:

#4

I believe he means a Doctor of Osteopathy which is a legitimate degree to become a physician but it has a reputation as being the lesser of two physucian’s academic degrees.

#5

To practice in the U.S. after graduating from any foreign medical school, the person must take the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination). This test is extremely hard, and it seems that the main goal of the caribbean medical schools is to educate the person to pass the USMLE.

Regarding DO’s and MD’s: DO’s mostly practice primary care, and its a little bit easier to get into those schools. They are similar nowadays, but there still are differences between them. Here’s a site for more information.

Don’t get DO’s confused with foreign graduated MD’s: I’d much rather have a DO than a foreign medical graduate. This is where the opinion part comes in. It is up to you to decide whether you trust that kind of doctor.

#6

I don’t think that DO = chiropractors. Some DO have choose to do chiropractice but their education is almost identical to that of an MD program.

From what I understand, MDs tend to focus on illnesses more or less singularly whereas DOs have a more wholistic (sp?) approach (not New Agey holistic, but treat the whole person as one system). That’s a very gross simplification of the different philosophies of the 2 schools. It’s true that among the health care profession, DOs tend to get a shorter end of the reputation stick when compared to an MD, but I’ve seen DOs (always as a family/primary care physician) who were just as good as someone with a MD degree. Some hospitals accept DOs into their program, and DOs do their residency training alongside MDs. (FWIW, I come from a family of MDs, lest anyone thing I was sounding defensive about ODs or anything of the sort.)

Not to be confused with ODs, who are optometrists!

#7

As aeropl mentioned, you must pass USMLE exams to practice so there is a basic set of criteria that each hopeful physician must pass in order to attain a residency (and therefore practice in the US)

As for the training provided by the Caribbean schools, it varies greatly. There are a handful of Caribbean Med-Schools that are almost at par with most domestic Med-Schools but there are also a lot of very low-grade Caribbean schools, too.

In my experience, most Caribbean graduates that pass the USMLEs are just as good as a domestically trained physician.

#8

DO’s are not DC’s! DO’s are mainstream these days! I’ve chosen DO’s in the past to be my and my family’s physician, so that ought to tell you something! And I got my MD from Johns Hopkins, which is generally considered a bit above a caribbean med school.

Now back to the OP. I’ve worked with a few Ross U. grads, and some sucked, and some were good, and one was exceptional. It depends on their own native talents, and whether or not they managed to land decent stateside clinical rotations. Experiences can vary widely. I can name a handful of my classmates from Hopkins I’d definitely not send my family to, but I would send them to a few of the Caribbean grads I’ve worked with.

The trouble for the public is, it’s hard to know who’s good or not without seeing them work, and knowing the profession.

So if any of you want me to recommend them a prison physician, drop me a line!

#9

I only said Do are DC because that’s what my doctor (a DO!) told me. Perhaps there are other career paths in DO school.

And calling someone a chiropractor isn’t always an insult. This site contains some good articles describing when a DC is a quack. I’ve read some good stuff there.

Like I said, the treatment my doctor gives is no different than any I’ve ever gotten, other than being better. :wink: Now, if instead of offering brand new drug treatments for managing my asthma she had suggested it was caused by “nerve interference” due to “subluxations”, requiring thrice weekly “adjustments”, I would have been out the door.

#10

I screwed up the link. Try this.

Preview really is useful. But only if you use it!