Advice on career path

[goldenwest]

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Howdy folks,

I know what I want to do; I'm just not sure how I should do it. I am certain that I want to attend medical school and am very interested in surgery - particularly gen, uro, or cardio. However, my main passion is medical mission work... I want to do surgery over seas for several years after I get out of residency, but I know that it will be exceedingly difficult to practice and continue to make trips overseas after that. I'm very interested in teaching at a medical school later in life, and that would somewhat solve my dilemma if I decided not to teach during the summers. Money is not an issue I'm concerned with. My question is... what would be the best way to do that? Should I consider doing a MD/PhD program? Could I just teach a few rotations as an Attending and then become a professor? I'm not really sure how all that works.

Thanks in advance,
gw

 

[TexasPhysician]

If you want to do bench research in a lab for a good portion of your career, get the PhD. If not, you can work at a medical center/school with only an M.D.