A common discussion topic in this forum is "why pursue MD/PhD vs. PhD only vs. MD only?". An interesting article in JAMA, and referenced in AuntMinnie, provides some statistical data for your consideration.
Quoting from AuntMinnie:
"NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jun 14 - Despite physicians' unique skills, experience, motivation, and perspective, physician-investigators with only an MD degree are significantly underrepresented among researchers who receive grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), new research findings suggest."
Please read: http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=res&Pag=dis&ItemId=76259
"...As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association for June 13, imbalances in successful applicants favoring PhDs and MD/PhDs over MDs-only persisted despite the fact that "the pace of scientific discovery and its increasing applicability to human disease were unparalleled, and the medical research frontier truly seemed endless," the authors write."
This is a link to the JAMA article: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/22/2496
quoting the results from the JAMA article:
"The annual number of first-time investigators with an MD only as NIH R01 grant applicants remained remarkably stable over 4 decades (41-year mean of 707 [range, 537-983] applicants). Among first-time applicants, those with an MD consistently had less success in obtaining funding (mean annual percentage [MAP], 28%) than either investigators with a PhD (MAP, 31%; P = .03 vs MD only) or both an MD and a PhD (MAP, 34%; P<.001 vs MD only and P = .002 vs PhD only). Among investigators who obtained a first R01 grant, those with an MD were consistently less likely (MAP, 70%) than those with a PhD (MAP, 73%; P = .04 vs MD only) or those with an MD and a PhD (MAP, 78%; P<.001 vs MD only and P = .007 vs PhD only) to obtain a subsequent R01 grant. First-time applicants with an MD were much more likely to propose clinical research (MAP, 67%) than applicants with an MD and a PhD (MAP, 43%) and applicants with a PhD only (39%). First-time applicants with an MD only who proposed clinical research were funded at lower rates than their MD-only counterparts proposing nonclinical research (23% vs 29%, respectively; P<.001)."
Quoting from AuntMinnie:
"NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Jun 14 - Despite physicians' unique skills, experience, motivation, and perspective, physician-investigators with only an MD degree are significantly underrepresented among researchers who receive grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), new research findings suggest."
Please read: http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=res&Pag=dis&ItemId=76259
"...As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association for June 13, imbalances in successful applicants favoring PhDs and MD/PhDs over MDs-only persisted despite the fact that "the pace of scientific discovery and its increasing applicability to human disease were unparalleled, and the medical research frontier truly seemed endless," the authors write."
This is a link to the JAMA article: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/22/2496
quoting the results from the JAMA article:
"The annual number of first-time investigators with an MD only as NIH R01 grant applicants remained remarkably stable over 4 decades (41-year mean of 707 [range, 537-983] applicants). Among first-time applicants, those with an MD consistently had less success in obtaining funding (mean annual percentage [MAP], 28%) than either investigators with a PhD (MAP, 31%; P = .03 vs MD only) or both an MD and a PhD (MAP, 34%; P<.001 vs MD only and P = .002 vs PhD only). Among investigators who obtained a first R01 grant, those with an MD were consistently less likely (MAP, 70%) than those with a PhD (MAP, 73%; P = .04 vs MD only) or those with an MD and a PhD (MAP, 78%; P<.001 vs MD only and P = .007 vs PhD only) to obtain a subsequent R01 grant. First-time applicants with an MD were much more likely to propose clinical research (MAP, 67%) than applicants with an MD and a PhD (MAP, 43%) and applicants with a PhD only (39%). First-time applicants with an MD only who proposed clinical research were funded at lower rates than their MD-only counterparts proposing nonclinical research (23% vs 29%, respectively; P<.001)."
