STAT calls to merge MD and DO

STAT published an opinion essay on Aug. 5 arguing that the United States should stop training physicians through separate M.D. and D.O. systems and move to a single entry route. The piece was written by Abigail MacKenzie, an internal medicine resident and graduate of Nova Southeastern University’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, and Vijay Rajput, who STAT says has more than 25 years of experience in undergraduate and graduate medical education. The article appeared in STAT’s First Opinion section, which is the outlet’s opinion vertical rather than a news report. ### Who made the case, and what exactly did they argue? Abigail MacKenzie and Vijay Rajput wrote that keeping separate M.D. and D.O. pathways is “historical inertia dressed as educational diversity,” and they argued that “doctors are doctors” despite the dual structure. Their proposal was to merge the two educational tracks into one physician-training system rather than preserve parallel degree pathways. (statnews.com) STAT identified MacKenzie as an internal medicine resident physician and Rajput as a longtime medical-education leader. The piece was framed as a reform argument about physician training, not as an announcement from an accreditor, medical school association or licensing body. ### Why is this debate surfacing now if residencies already merged? The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education already operates a single accreditation system for residency and fellowship training, a structure the American Medical Association has described as bringing M.D. and D.O. graduates into the same ACGME-accredited graduate medical education pipeline. (statnews.com) That means the split the authors are targeting is primarily at the undergraduate medical education level — medical school degree tracks and their separate accrediting structures — not at residency accreditation itself. The ACGME still maintains “Osteopathic Recognition” for residency programs that formally teach and assess Osteopathic Principles and Practice. Under current rules, that designation sits inside the single residency system rather than outside it. ### What institutions would a merger run into? The Liaison Committee on Medical Education accredits medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States. (ama-assn.org) Osteopathic schools operate through a separate institutional structure, with the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine representing colleges of osteopathic medicine and publishing application, enrollment and graduate data for that sector. Any real merger proposal would therefore run through accreditation, governance and degree-structure questions, not just rhetoric about residency competition. (acgme.org) AACOM said last month that colleges of osteopathic medicine are educating close to 30% of all U.S. medical students and forecast that share could reach one third by 2030. AACOM also reported that first-year osteopathic enrollment reached 11,590 in 2025-26 and that graduates hit a record 9,019 in 2025-26. Those figures show the D.O. pathway is not marginal inside U.S. physician training. (lcme.org) ### Why would applicants and schools care about this argument? The AAMC said total enrollment at U.S. M.D.-granting schools exceeded 100,000 for the first time in the 2025-26 academic year, while osteopathic schools continued expanding at the same time. In practice, that means any attempt to collapse the two systems would touch a large and still-growing share of the physician-training pipeline. (aacom.org) For applicants, the current structure still means separate centralized application and school ecosystems on the undergraduate side, even though residency training now runs through one ACGME system. For residency applicants who want specifically osteopathic-focused training, the AMA says FREIDA allows searches for programs with Osteopathic Recognition among more than 13,000 ACGME-accredited programs. ### Is any official merger actually underway? (aamc.org) No accreditor or national physician-training body announced a merger on Aug. 5. The STAT piece was an opinion essay, and the official framework visible today still includes LCME accreditation for M.D. programs, AACOM-backed osteopathic school infrastructure, and ACGME Osteopathic Recognition within the unified residency system. AACOM’s next visible public marker is its Sept. 16-17, 2026 Advocacy Day, which the organization says will focus on the future of osteopathic medical education. (freida.ama-assn.org) That leaves the immediate next step in this story in the realm of response — from accreditors, osteopathic groups and medical-education leaders — rather than a scheduled policy vote. (aacom.org) (statnews.com)