Value of 4 year MD/MPH degree?

[HikariSorbet]

Hi all
I am planning on attending a medical school that has a 4 year MD/MPH option. I applied for the program since I was interested and the application deadline was relatively early, but now I am having some second thoughts. For context I have a political advocacy and policy background and am interested in epidemiology, and am open to working in academic or administrative public health roles in the future. I was hoping any current or past 4 year MD/MPH students could comment on the value of the degree and a few of my concerns which are as follows.

1) I’ve read online that due to the nature of the 4 year MD/MPH program some people feel that they rush through their MPH coursework and have difficulty remembering it or applying it during or after residency. Also, I was wondering how manageable the course-load is concurrently with your MD classes. I am interested in a competitive sub specialty and am worried the MPH coursework will prevents me from honoring my regular coursework. I know there is an option to get the MPH during residency when you can better tailor it to your degree interests. Can any current or former MD/MPH students comment on how valuable their dual degree has been for their future career interests/if it is a better option to get the degree later and tailor it more specifically to your career?

2. I am pretty sure what area of medicine I would like to practice in but very unsure as far as whether I want to do research/academics/public policy/administrative work in the future? Can any current/former 4 year MD/MPH students comment on how their MPH experiences have impacted their career paths and interests? Would it be better to just get the MD and figure that out would the dual degree help?

Unfortunately the 5 year MD/MPH program is not an option for me. Thank you all for the advice!

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[nimbus]

It really depends on your desire to work in policy making and administration. If you just want to practice medicine, and MPH is of no value. Which competitive subspecialty are you currently interested in? In my experience, most combined MD/MPH’s are in less competitive specialties. Only do it if you are truly interested in public health.

 

[TurtleyReady4Med]

I had an MPH first and a current M1. A few of my friends doing the combined program felt it was rushed but still worthwhile to achieve. To answer your questions: 1) I don’t think it will be the deciding factor of a residency program choosing you for a competitive specialty, that being said it could be a talking point in an interview if you are passionate in the material. 2) For me the MPH gave me a wide list of problems being faced by America and let me chose what I was interested. I chose psych/substance use which have since become a focus on my medical career to. I am passionate about it so I was able to talk to PIs knowledgeably on the subject. The biostats courses have helped me to do my own statistics work on projects.
As the above poster said: do it if you are interested in it, not just to get more letters added after your name. If you are passionate about societal problems and strategies to rectify them it is a good degree.

 

[libertyyne]

MPH is unlikely to have any bearing on residency outcome for competitive specialties.
MPH now will cost money and effort.
There are residencies that will subsidize MPH programs.

If you want to do the MPH do it for yourself. But also realize that if you are not engaged in public health related activities during clinical practice your skills will atrophy.

 

[HikariSorbet]

It really depends on your desire to work in policy making and administration. If you just want to practice medicine, and MPH is of no value. Which competitive subspecialty are you currently interested in? In my experience, most combined MD/MPH’s are in less competitive specialties. Only do it if you are truly interested in public health.

I’m interested in ENT. In my gap year I’ve worked in an ENT clinic/done ENT related public health research for about 2 years.

 

[HikariSorbet]

I'm currently finishing up M3 year as an MD/MPH student in a 4-year combined program, so I try to share my experience a bit. For all of this, N=1

1) By necessity, the MPH coursework during the first two years will take away from your ability to study for your classes. However, this is really dependent on how well you need to do in your classes. For instance, my medical school curriculum is P/F the first two years, which made it a bit easier to swallow being stuck in a classroom on Tuesday nights if the MPH class was not one that I was particularly interested in. My classmates and I for the most part do feel that we had enough time to study for MD courses, and Step 1 went just fine for us. I think it's particularly helpful for those not going into surgical fields. If you're thinking surgery, I'd say to put it off to do it during residency because in all honesty, it's not as relevant.

2) I do feel that the MPH coursework has been really influential in deciding what I wanted to do with my career. To echo what Turtley said, it's given me a lot of additional training in research methods, epidemiology, and biostatistics that have really fostered research during medical school that I would otherwise have not been able to do. I came in thinking I had an interest in policy, but I quickly realized that the day-to-day in working with health policy makes me want to bang my head against a wall. But I realized that I really enjoy research, and the MPH gave me tools to be able to do my own statistics, think more critically about study design, etc. I think that's where it's been most helpful.

Feel free to PM me with any questions. Good luck!

Thank you this is really helpful! I am interested in a surgical subspecialty but I am also very interested in epidemiology/public health research related to that specialty so I do think the MPH could be valuable. Thanks for your insight.