soccerchamp76

I have a lot of time to decide about this, but I have an interest in being a doctor. Recently, however, I decided that biomedical research would be interesting and many med schools have M.D./Ph.D. programs. However, the program usually lasts 7 years. The main question I have to ask is, are the benefits there for adding the addition doctorate degree?

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Brian Griffin: Ah, if my memory serves me, this is the physics department.
Chris Griffin: That would explain all the gravity.

alpo

That's a good question, and the exact same one I had back when I was getting ready to graduate from college. I think you have to try to decide what you want to do with your career. Would you like to spend your career in academic medicine or would you like to go into private practice? It's tough to figure all that out until you've had some exposure to academic medicine. Back when I was graduating from college in the mid '90's, I was stuck with the same decision that you are facing. Molecular biology was just starting to explode and I had really enjoyed some independent research that I did as an undergrad. I decided to take a couple of years off before going to medical school to "try out" research. After 5 years of research, I finally decided to go back and get that medical degree. What I've found so far in my young medical career, is that a PhD is not entirely necessary to stay within academic medicine and do research. I do say that with some reservations though. You have to try to incorporate as much research as you can into your undergrad and med school years. That's pretty hard to do. The years in med school are pretty tough; there isn't much time for outside activities like research. The final opportunity to do research without doing a PhD is during residency. If you don't do a PhD and want to do research in you should try to go to a residency program that is steeped in academic medicine and research. In my residency program, at a rather well known program in beautiful Baltimore, MD, I'd estimate that about 1/3 of my colleagues have a PhD. There are still plenty of opportunities for the rest of us to do research.

In some ways, I think there are some downsides to having a PhD in medicine. At least in my institution, the MD-PhD folks often get pigeon holed into non-clinical areas. So if you still want to see patients, it is often difficult to do so.

This is a topic I could talk about for quite a long time (I guess I already have). The above represents my thoughts, as someone who opted against getting a PhD.

BAMF

School is a lot better than work. And in grad school with a RA/TA position you get a free ride.

Bossnass

How long do you want to stay in school?

A Ph.D, at least a med-lab research based one, is a 4-5 year commitment. Most medical undergrads require four years, then add 2-7 in residency. From my local understanding (I'm soon to marry a med student who very seriously considered the MD-Ph.D route), doing research doesn't take away from any of the other requirements.

So you're looking at probably 4 years of your first degree, unless you are exceptional and get in sooner. Best case scenario, if you work hard from day one, you can get both the MD and the Ph.D in 6 years. I would guess that 7-8 or 9 is more accurate. Then you still have some residency to complete, and my understanding of the time requirements for a thesis writing researcher and a resident are greater then 24 hours per day.

Of course, what is an extra couple years in the big picture?

soccerchamp76

Well, usually, you would not do the residency if you go to the MD/PhD route because of the research aspect. If you want to practice with a PhD, then yes, you would.

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Brian Griffin: Ah, if my memory serves me, this is the physics department.
Chris Griffin: That would explain all the gravity.

Amano

It also depends on what kind of research you want to do. When you say biomedical, there's really two kinds:

1) Clinical research, which is all about statistical correlations between sicknesses, lifestyle things, medicines, etc. Stuff like taking statistics on how much of a new drug will cause side effects, or correlating obesity and diabetes. Note I said correlating, and in my probably biased opinion (but someone back me up if they agree), you're just doing correlations, and as we all (should) know, correlation doesn't mean correlation

2) Basic science or engineering research, where you actually go look at the molecular mechanisms that cause disease, or if you are into biomedical engineering type stuff, then inventing new drug delivery systems, or biomedical machinery, diagnostics, etc.

That said, the PhD really would only help if you're interested in basic science or engineering research. You can do clinical research as an MD. There are of course MD's who do basic science research, but I'd say that's the exception, not the rule.

eribrav

Let me sum it up for you:

Waste. Of. Time.

Decide now if you really want to be a laboratory researcher. If you do then go get a PhD and forget the MD.

If not then just go to medical school. You can still do plenty of clinical research with your MD, while you continue to see patients and earn a living. Trust me, because that's the situation I'm in now.

You really, really don't want to add on more years of training than you have to. It turns out life really IS better when you have a paying job and don't work like a dog like you will in residency/fellowship etc. You're already going to be watching your Computer Sci/Engineering etc. friends going out and earning a great living while you slave away at school on meager loans, without financial security. Don't add more years of servitude to the already long uphill road you're facing

Snakedance

Agree with Eribrav. If you are going to research, then get a PH. D. The extra letters arent worth the extra years for doing research. If you are going to practice....the extra letters might be equivalent to the time it takes top pay off student loans. Finish as quickly as possible and get on with your life, I loved being a student, but I loved finishing my education also. Interestingly enough, my experience was that the double degrees didnt enhance careers as much as you would expect.

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"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity. - Albert Einstein