Source: MacKenzie A, Rajput V. Tear down the wall between M.D. and D.O. education. STAT. August 5, 2026. Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.statnews.com/2026/08/05/md-vs-do-medical-education-merge/
MacKenzie and Rajput argue that the United States should merge its two undergraduate medical education systems into one. Their premise is that the MD/DO distinction has no clinical meaning: both hold the same state licenses, prescribe, operate, and lead hospital teams, and outcomes research bears this out—a national cohort study in JAMA Surgery found no significant differences in mortality, readmissions, or length of stay between patients of allopathic and osteopathic surgeons, and a large Annals of Internal Medicine analysis found the same for hospitalists caring for Medicare patients.
Yet the pipeline remains split across two accreditors (LCME and COCA) and two licensing examination pathways. DO students take their own board series and increasingly feel compelled to sit for the USMLE as well, paying twice and preparing twice to compete for the same residency positions. The authors trace the historical origins—Andrew Taylor Still’s founding of osteopathy in 1874, the American School of Osteopathy in 1892, the AMA in 1847, the LCME in 1942—and argue the rationale has expired.
The cost is borne asymmetrically. The 2024 NRMP Program Director Survey found nearly one in ten programs never consider a US DO applicant; in vascular surgery, 30% never do and another 40% seldom do, with no program saying the same of MD applicants. The authors reject the “weaker applicant” explanation: programs are recruiting future physicians, not test-takers, and the outcomes data show no difference in the product.
Their model is the 2020 single-accreditation merger of graduate medical education under ACGME—predicted to fail, it succeeded, and more than 250 programs voluntarily sought ACGME osteopathic recognition afterward. A unified medical school framework could likewise preserve osteopathic principles as an elective track. They call for a joint commission on physician education modernization to set a unification timeline, consolidate licensure into a single national exam, and protect schools serving rural and underserved communities.