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Interest in DO Bridge program


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Hi Everyone,

I'm a current PA as well as a  current DO student.  I am doing some research in conjunction with my dean regarding interest in a PA to DO bridge program.    I am aware that one such program already exists at LECOM.   This program  would be in the Southeastern United States.  I think this is a very real possibility if I can demonstrate appropriate interest to our deans.  If you have friends or acquaintances who are interested that would be helpful anecdotal information as well.   We are in the very early stages of investigating this opportunity so unfortunately I am not able to provide much more detail at this time.    Thanks for your time!

Edited by redswc15
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Definitely, while it may be a little late for me I think the need/desire is without a doubt there.

While I am far from anything close to an expert in medical education I think one of the biggest draws to LECOM was the dropping of the MCAT requirement.  As many of us who would be interested are in our 30s, we don't have time to dedicate 3-5 months of full time studying for the exam, I'm truly curious if it actually reflects success in a MD/DO program or if it simply exists to weed out folks. 

Although I was an idiot in high school and never took the SAT/ACT so I was precluded from applying to LECOM anyways but still...

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I’m in the SE and would be your first applicant! 
 

Truly though I would be curious to see if an actual “bridge” program could be developed that actually gave PAs credit for our education. As you well know it’s not a joke. To me a bridge would be a year of classroom work hitting some of the more in-depth medicine, a year of clinical rotations and then applications to residency. 
 

The LECOM program isn’t really a bridge from my understandings of how the program works. 

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13 minutes ago, rev ronin said:

Med school would be cool, but no way I'm doing residency.  Did the "wake up randomly" thing in my 20s-40s in IT and volunteer fire service and hated it then.  Thus, I fully expect that PA, DMSc, and a few other postnominals will be all the farther I go in formal medical credentials.

If there was a bridge with online didactics for a year and then 1 year of clinicals, no mcats for entry, and automatic admission to an affiliated residency program, I would do it even now in my 50s. I would probably sleep more in medschool than I do now...😂

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LECOM is in desperate NEED of competition... I have knowledge of their program and the current PA to DO program director has an open hatred of PA's, however, there is no other option so many stick it out and keep their head down. I would love to see anyone take away from their pool of applicants to hit them in their wallet. With a school that actually cares about their students I would imagine this could be a very successful endeavor.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, CSCH said:

Would be very interested. 
Why are no MD programs doing this?

What benefit does a program have to creating a bridge program.

 

3 year programs already exist. 

They lose out on tuition money from students.

 

And MD and DO are not accredited by the same governing body. So it may be okay for the COCA standards but not LCME standards. 

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1 hour ago, CSCH said:

Are 3-year med school programs looked upon negatively by residency admissions?

Folks who graduate from Lecom have matched into impressive residencies in EM, anesthesiology, etc so I would say no. I think they really just care about your grades, boards scores, and interviews. 

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Thanks for all the feedback and discussion.   Nearly all of the 3 year non-bridge programs are tied to primary care. There are a scattered few tied directly to other tracks like the Penn State programs.    My thoughts with this bridge program would be to have complete flexibility as to residency choice.    There are a lot of other items on my wish list as well, but I'm sure COCA will limit a lot of that.

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9 hours ago, Apollo1 said:

Rumor is that the LECOM bridge requires a significant percentage of its' cohort to match in primary care. That's a pretty big risk if you're wanting to work in a specialty outside of FM/IM/Peds/Psych, not counting the loss of potential income.

Its not a rumor it's on the page for APAP application that half the class commits to Primary Care. 

Application page

It is also in the DO program's mission statement it is a primary care school.

Mission Statement

Many medical schools have a primary care focus. My school for instance my program has a primary care focus. Believe we had a 41% primary care match rate. On the other hand the largest section of residency spots are for primary cares anyway. 

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On 2/16/2022 at 8:36 PM, MediMike said:

Definitely, while it may be a little late for me I think the need/desire is without a doubt there.

While I am far from anything close to an expert in medical education I think one of the biggest draws to LECOM was the dropping of the MCAT requirement.  As many of us who would be interested are in our 30s, we don't have time to dedicate 3-5 months of full time studying for the exam, I'm truly curious if it actually reflects success in a MD/DO program or if it simply exists to weed out folks. 

Although I was an idiot in high school and never took the SAT/ACT so I was precluded from applying to LECOM anyways but still...

MCAT scores do directly correlate with passage of step exams. That’s it.

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