July is upon us, and it’s a big month in the world of medicine. July 1 is traditionally the day that medical school graduates start their residency training. It’s a time of anxiety for those physicians and also can be a time of confusion for people being seen and treated by them in hospitals and clinics. I thought it might be good to review the process of becoming a physician so that if you find yourself in a teaching hospital, you’ll understand who is who.

Let’s pretend you decide you want to be a physician. You succeed in college and are accepted into medical school (either “allopathic,” which means M.D., or “osteopathic,” which means D.O. — they are essentially the same programs by the way).