Why should I do a Md/JD?

malpractice lawyer or working for healthcare legislation?

Defending innocent physicians from unfounded malpractice claims? (The most acceptable answer, IMO.)

you wanna know the reason?

it's so they can join the medical community, learn their secrets, gain their trust, and back stab them by filing litigation against physicians with knowledge thanks to their duel degree.


i jest....

anonymousername said:

you wanna know the reason?

it's so they can join the medical community, learn their secrets, gain their trust, and back stab them by filing litigation against physicians with knowledge thanks to their duel degree.


i jest....

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You jest but some of the wealthiest attorneys I know did exactly what you said. They know exactly how to find where the doctor messed up and before tort reform, a few I know were pulling in greater than $1 million per year.

TexasPhysician said:

You jest but some of the wealthiest attorneys I know did exactly what you said. They know exactly how to find where the doctor messed up and before tort reform, a few I know were pulling in greater than $1 million per year.

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*Ahem... I think I might want to check in to this MD/JD you speak of . But yeah- good ole anonymousername aka Jack Bauer nailed it on the head, IMO.

I think the only reason to do it would be because you have an interest in both medicine and law and wish to combine them. The legal market is very saturated right now, and has been for a while. The only students that are finding "good" jobs seem to be those who are graduating from the top 14 schools. With that being said, lawyers who have a nich within the law are more successful, such as patent lawyers, and yes, health lawyers.

Lets say I start my MD/JD program at age 22. What age would I be when I came out of it?

With tort reform, it isn't financially worth it anymore. It would take approximately 10 years to complete it all.

If I were you OP, I would PM Law2doc, who is a mod on here.

Slowpoke said:

Lets say I start my MD/JD program at age 22. What age would I be when I came out of it?

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You probably come out faster than alot of medical student because you probably dont need to do a long residency.

ITreat said:

You probably come out faster than alot of medical student because you probably dont need to do a long residency.

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if your doing a MD/JD you probably will have to still do a residency.. something like pathology which is useful and will put you in a very good place in a drug company.

serenade said:

if your doing a MD/JD you probably will have to still do a residency.. something like pathology which is useful and will put you in a very good place in a drug company.

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This is a little off topic, but I cannot understand how 99% of all the things you post on this forum are dead wrong (or at least mostly wrong)

Although an MD, JD could do patent law for a biotech company, most patent lawyers are straight-up JD's, or have MS's or PhD's in addition to their JD's. For a biotech company, the value of an MD is as a consultant or someone who can oversee clinical trials

To the OP: do a search of the forum, and you'll see this topic has been discussed previously.

MD/JD is what I am shooting for. I was very close to becoming an JD/RN before I decided to try for med school.

I am interested in staff protection. One of the reasons I want a dual degree is because I think to understand the role of an MD, you actually have to be one. For the life of me, I cannot understand how people with straight MBAs can run hospitals and what not. Its like an insurance company, or the president, telling doctors how to do their jobs. How do they know what to do when they've never even experienced it? It happens often, Im sure, but I personally think that things would be a lot more successful if the people running medicine held a dual degree, such as MD/MBA or MD/JD.

Specifically, I want to practice clinical medicine and shape the policies that govern my workplace. Since I have been in the acute care setting for a few years now, I have seen how badly patients are able to manipulate the system. Patients are basically held unaccountable for pretty much everything while doctors have to continually jump through hoops and walk around with constant paranoia. I feel like better staff protection will lead to better recruitment and retainment, and eventually save quite a bit of money. I almost feel as if we have let patients sort of dictate the way medicine works...and I want to start to reform that, make the patient take some accountability and assume more of the risk.

WNT Signaling said:

This is a little off topic, but I cannot understand how 99% of all the things you post on this forum are dead wrong (or at least mostly wrong)

Although an MD, JD could do patent law for a biotech company, most patent lawyers are straight-up JD's, or have MS's or PhD's in addition to their JD's. For a biotech company, the value of an MD is as a consultant or someone who can oversee clinical trials

To the OP: do a search of the forum, and you'll see this topic has been discussed previously.

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hey im taking from experience from a dude who lives across the street, he has a JD/MD and did a pathology residency and now works for a drug company.
eh.. most things i post are wrong? well then ignore me by all means
or
better more correct me big brother

serenade said:

eh.. most things i post are wrong? well then ignore me by all means
or
better more correct me big brother

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Sorry, I came across as a jerk; I apologize. I actually had an older sn I used in UG, and I switched to a new one because I was embarassed by some of the things I posted a long time ago

You can be a very high quality malpractice attorney without having gone to medical school.

I don't see any reason to pursue both degrees.

elftown said:

My brother-in-law is using an MD, JD, PhD to dispute an assault charge.

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What a life wasting tool, lol.

ArkansasRanger said:

You can be a very high quality malpractice attorney without having gone to medical school.

I don't see any reason to pursue both degrees.

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You can, but historically the most profitable medical malpractice guys were MD/JD's. Its just more effective if you know exactly how the medical system works from the inside.

Again with tort reform and future medical reform to make it even worse, most malpractice attorneys have cut out med-mal all together. They focus on other types of malpractice now.

If you have interests in medical reform, a JD could be beneficial. If you want to get a MD/JD for extra income, you missed the boat.

jdmd1student said:

I wanna know the reason why people join the md/jd program?

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Masochism.

TexasPhysician said:

You jest but some of the wealthiest attorneys I know did exactly what you said. They know exactly how to find where the doctor messed up and before tort reform, a few I know were pulling in greater than $1 million per year.

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Like the one mentioned in Atul Gawande's book, Better?

Pretty nasty stuff there about they cherry pick and make sure the plaintiff is a "good" combination so it wins the heart of the judge/jury. But alas, that is probably the deal with most high-income cases in general.

jdmd1student said:

I wanna know the reason why people join the md/jd program?

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Because some people like having the letters MD and JD after their name?

My understanding is that having both degrees is useless (to be frank). If you want to be a malpractice lawyer, you don't need an MD. If you want to do some ethics/legal things as a doctor, you don't need a JD. It's essentially just an extra 3/4 years that you spend in school, depending on which degree is your "extra" one.

The only reason to do an MD/JD where you actually need both degrees, as I've heard, is if you want to work part-time as a doctor (e.g., Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) and part-time as a lawyer (e.g., Tuesdays and Thursdays).

.

Hoody said:

MD/JD is what I am shooting for. I was very close to becoming an JD/RN before I decided to try for med school.

I am interested in staff protection. One of the reasons I want a dual degree is because I think to understand the role of an MD, you actually have to be one. For the life of me, I cannot understand how people with straight MBAs can run hospitals and what not. Its like an insurance company, or the president, telling doctors how to do their jobs. How do they know what to do when they've never even experienced it? It happens often, Im sure, but I personally think that things would be a lot more successful if the people running medicine held a dual degree, such as MD/MBA or MD/JD.

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Because they're good at running stuff and are business savvy. That's all that matters to the hospital board. If they are willing to hire someone without the MD and JD after their name to, and those kind of people have been doing it for years, then why pursue both degrees?

I thought about getting a combined degree as well, either the MBA or JD, but then realized, why? It seems to just be a huge waste, since if I wanted to do something in health reform and law, you'd just be better off getting just the JD. You really don't need the extra degree. Would it look better? Sure. Necessary? Probably not.

jckut10 said:

When I applied for one of my undergrad schools, I was interviewed by an alumnus with an MD/JD in his personal office at work. He's a consultant. Corner office, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the works. Guy probably makes six, maybe seven figures every year easy.

When he asked me wahat I wanted to do after college, I was tempted to tell him I wanted his job.

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Are you basing his salary on the looks of his office?

I'm on the interview trail, and many MANY MD's have corner offices with floor-to-ceiling windows at numerous institutions.

I always thought it was funny that corner offices and lots of windows are considered indicators of prestige. Doesn't it just mean that you spend that much more time staring outside and not focusing on work? Haha.