Is there any institution that fund for MPH degree for their clinical attendings?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

donaldtang

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2008
Messages
129
Reaction score
1
I am currently a medical resident and considering an academic career that I can spend a significant amount of time in research.
Therefore I would like to pursue intensive training in biostatistics, hopefully obtain a degree in biostatistics.
Just wondering if you are aware of any hospital that is willing to pay the tuition for their attending physicians?
If not, I will probably have to consider funding myself for such training.
And are there any online programs that you recommend?
Thank you for any suggestions!

Members don't see this ad.
 
I'm not a resident/physician/med student or anything of that matter, but I think it would be difficult to find a hospital that would pay for their attendings to get an MPH. It's not really applicable to the work you would be doing. I think exceptions would be occupational and preventive medicine, infection prevention/ID (maybe), and possibly (and I mean like a very low possibly) academics. It just wouldn't really do anything useful for the hospital.
 
I don't know of any residencies that do that.

However, I do know of a couple of post-doctoral fellowships that accept MDs that pay for MPH degrees. A postdoctoral fellowship is usually 2 years of intensive research and training; you work with a mentor who advises you in research and author papers with them, and you usually do professional development and training, sometimes formal classes. I am a postdoc now and looked at several, and many of them offered (and required) their MDs and non-public health PhDs to earn the MPH during their postdoctoral fellowship there. If you want to transition to a research career, a postdoc is probably a good idea anyway. You can do one before or after your residency - I've seen postdocs that take both.

Here are some examples:

UCLA's health services research: http://hpm.ph.ucla.edu/academics/programs/ucla-rand-post-doctoral-program (the MPH is in health policy and management, though, not biostatistics)

University of Pittsburgh/RAND's health policy postdoc: http://www.rand.org/about/edu_op/fellowships/ruhpi.html

UNC-Chapel Hill Sheps Center: http://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/fellowships/nrsa-fellowships/nrsa-postdoctoral/

Northwestern's health services research postdoc: http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/cehs/fellowship/overview.html (not sure if they offer an MPH, but you can do a master's offered by the graduate school).

UCSF's AIDS postdoc: http://caps.ucsf.edu/training/taps

University of Washington's in health services research: http://depts.washington.edu/ahrqhsrt/

In addition, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has a postdoctoral fellowship (http://www.healthdata.org/post-graduate-fellowship/application-process). You need to already have a relatively strong quantitative background for this. The National Center for Health Statistics has one too.

I know Columbia has a few, I just don't know the exact names. I knew a couple of postdocs there doing MPHs when I was a graduate student there. Look especially in epidemiology, which offers a lot of the same rigorous mathematical training in a more applied sense.

Lastly, a lot of postdocs might not formally offer a master's degree but will work with you flexibly for you to either take the courses that you really need to get the training in biostatistics or to allow you to earn a full degree.
 
Top