General Surgery Podium Presentation: Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery Fellowship Selection Process: the Impact of Being a DO Candidate

Introduction/Purpose: Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) candidates have an uphill climb in terms of matching into the field of General Surgery when compared to their Doctor of Medicine (MD) counterparts, as evident in the match rates between US MD Seniors and US DO seniors with similar USMLE scores. However, there has not been any study exploring the impact of being a DO applicant when applying to Hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) fellowship.

Methods or Case Description: Survey was sent out to 52 faculty members and programs directors involved in HPB fellowship candidate selection. It consisted of cases where respondents had to pick a preferred candidate between on 2 abridged, fictional HPB fellow applications and give an open-ended response as to why they picked that candidate. The applications were nearly identical with one notable characteristic of interest such as candidate’s medical background (MD or DO). Faculty members were then asked to input their demographic information, followed by open-ended questions asking for their factors of interest when selecting a fellow. Program directors additionally provided demographic information of their past 5 fellows.

Outcomes: The demographic survey of the faculty members and past fellows consisted of all MDs (both US and foreign). In the case-based portion of the survey, 50% of respondents explicitly stated that they preferred the MD candidate over their DO counterpart because of their degree. However, the most important factors included motivation, passion, work ethic, collegiality, professionalism, academic productivity, and technical skill; medical degree was not mentioned by any respondents.

Conclusion: Being a DO candidate may provide to be a disadvantage when applying to HPB surgery fellowship program. However, there are more significant factors when selecting an HPB surgery fellow.