You asked. So here are my thoughts on how osteopathic medical students should respond to the NBOME.

(thread)

Look, even before the Step 2 CS cancellation, my DMs and email were flooded with messages from osteopathic medical students who are fed up with the NBOME.

There is *real* anger toward this organization. Honestly, more than I even heard about from MD students and the NBME.
The question is, will that sentiment translate into action?

Amorphous anger on social media is easy to ignore. But if that anger gets channeled into organized efforts to facilitate change, then improvements are possible.
This much should be clear: begging the NBOME to reconsider their Level 2-PE exam is a waste of your time.

Best case scenario, you’ll get another “town hall” meeting, a handful of platitudes, and some thoughtful beard stroking before being told that they’re keeping the exam.
Instead of complaining to the NBOME, here are a few things that are more likely to bring about real change.
1) Vote with your wallets: take USMLE Step 3.

Almost all states allow DO licensure by completing the USMLE series. If you aren’t required to engage with the NBOME, don’t.
2) Lobby the state boards that don’t allow the USMLE.

As an MD who has passed the USMLE, I could practice in any state. Why shouldn’t a DO who passed the USMLE be able to do the same?

(State boards that prop up the NBOME with a COMLEX requirement are listed in the Tweet below.) https://t.co/stace4lMjD
If you intend to practice in one of these states, talk to your state representative. Explain how the medical board is providing a deterrent to DOs serving patients in their state.

The board may be friendly with the NBOME, but they’re still accountable to the legislature.
3) Lobby the AOA to change the COCA accreditation requirements that compel schools to require COMLEX-USA.

It’s ultimately the COCA requirement that keeps the NBOME in business.
The AOA is the professional body ultimately responsible for securing the success of the osteopathic profession.

They should think carefully about whether, at this point in history, a “separate but equal” licensing exam hurts DOs more than it helps.

https://t.co/pFwaAx01oB
As a sidenote:

The LCME’s accreditation standards for MD schools are more stringent than COCA’s for COMs - and even they never mandated the USMLE.

(Still, most schools did - since the requirement gave access to student loans to cover registration fees).

Let the schools decide.
Last thing:

Don’t feel guilty about pursuing these tactics. None of them are underhanded. Market forces and political action are how things are supposed to work in America - and they’ll be needed to move an entrenched, monopolistic bureaucracy that ignores its constituents.

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Time for some thoughts on schools given the revised SickKids document and the fact that ON decided to leave most schools closed. ON is not the only jurisdiction to do so, but important to note that many jurisdictions would not have done so -even with higher incidence rates.


As outlined in the tweet by @NishaOttawa yesterday, the situation is complex, and not a simple right or wrong https://t.co/DO0v3j9wzr. And no one needs to list all the potential risks and downsides of prolonged school closures.


On the other hand: while school closures do not directly protect our most vulnerable in long-term care at all, one cannot deny that any factor potentially increasing community transmission may have an indirect effect on the risk to these institutions, and on healthcare.

The question is: to what extend do schools contribute to transmission, and how to balance this against the risk of prolonged school closures. The leaked data from yesterday shows a mixed picture -schools are neither unicorns (ie COVID free) nor infernos.

Assuming this data is largely correct -while waiting for an official publication of the data, it shows first and foremost the known high case numbers at Thorncliff, while other schools had been doing very well -are safe- reiterating the impact of socioeconomics on the COVID risk.

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Oh my Goodness!!!

I might have a panic attack due to excitement!!

Read this thread to the end...I just had an epiphany and my mind is blown. Actually, more than blown. More like OBLITERATED! This is the thing! This is the thing that will blow the entire thing out of the water!


Has this man been concealing his true identity?

Is this man a supposed 'dead' Seal Team Six soldier?

Witness protection to be kept safe until the right moment when all will be revealed?!

Who ELSE is alive that may have faked their death/gone into witness protection?


Were "golden tickets" inside the envelopes??


Are these "golden tickets" going to lead to their ultimate undoing?

Review crumbs on the board re: 'gold'.


#SEALTeam6 Trump re-tweeted this.
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
Still wondering about this 🤔


save as q