"To know how both the DO approach and the MD approach being present benefits everyone, all you need do is look at the outcomes for both. Patients that bounce back and forth between the two will ultimately settle on one, which means that each offers things the other does not. Having both means leaving no patient behind."

Like the question that asks what you, as a DO, can offer what an MD cannot, this question also intends to see how you skirt the sometimes controversial issue of specialties that have different, if not competing mind sets. It also gives you an opportunity to espouse the holistic approach in allopathic medicine, since many--including possibly your interviewer--may not 'get it.'

"The benefit to patients of having two different approaches is that not one size 'fits all.' Some patients present with conditions that only require a focused surgical strike, per se, while others require a 'big picture' approach. Having both these philosophical approaches in the same institution means less pathology will slip through the cracks."