How can I give back as a Doctor?

[Seranio]

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[scarletgirl777]

Hello,

I am an African-American student preparing to apply for medical school but I have a few questions. Recently i've taken some amazing classes on public health and African-American studies. I realized I am extremely interested in politics, the state of healthcare reform, and the effect of race in medicine. My question is how can I best combine all of these disciplines as a doctor to help my community? How can I best improve the conditions of the poor and underserved from a medical perspective? What can I do to make my voice a loud one? Do I need to become a pundit / medical correspondent? Surgeon General? Would an MD/PhD help with my cause? What will allow me to be the best advocate I can be?

I know considering being the Surgeon General probably sounds naive but this is something I am really passionate about. I am willing to work at it, I just need some input on some careers I can consider that would fulfill what I would want to do.

So much thanks to anyone who bothers to read this and wants to help me out.

I would think an MPH or an MPP would help much more than a PhD in terms of politics, advocacy, and health policy. A PhD is a purely academic degree.

 

[SlickNickMD]

My goal is humanitarian work overseas as a surgeon, preferably in wartorn/disaster stricken counties (ie Haiti, Afghanistan etc) Also gives me an opportunity to indulge my love to travel and experiencing new cultures

 

[wolfie77]

Hello,

I am an African-American student preparing to apply for medical school but I have a few questions. Recently i've taken some amazing classes on public health and African-American studies. I realized I am extremely interested in politics, the state of healthcare reform, and the effect of race in medicine. My question is how can I best combine all of these disciplines as a doctor to help my community? How can I best improve the conditions of the poor and underserved from a medical perspective? What can I do to make my voice a loud one? Do I need to become a pundit / medical correspondent? Surgeon General? Would an MD/PhD help with my cause? What will allow me to be the best advocate I can be?

I know considering being the Surgeon General probably sounds naive but this is something I am really passionate about. I am willing to work at it, I just need some input on some careers I can consider that would fulfill what I would want to do.

So much thanks to anyone who bothers to read this and wants to help me out.

This is going to sound really vague but if you do any of those things with excellence and with justice in mind, you will serve to make a difference. As long as you do well whatever you choose to do and never lose sight of why you want to do it, you should be fine.

More specifically, I myself am URM and am interested in academic medicine partly because there is a huuuuuuuuuge blatant underrepresentation of URM physician-scientists and academic physicians. Because of this, I hope to complete an MD/PhD program. Try looking into this specific disparity. It makes a difference to patients and to society when more people of color get into academic roles because these impact both the research that is produced and the education that is given to future science/medical students.