Combine surgical specialty + biomedical engineering research?

[iansinke]

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I'm currently doing my undergrad in Electrical & Biomedical engineering. I have a particular interest in robotic and minimally invasive surgery.

If I do an MD/Ph.D program, doing my Ph.D in biomedical engineering, and follow that with a surgery residency, will I be able to get an academic job which allows me to split my time between practicing surgery and researching surgical devices?

Or is surgery something which you have to pursue wholeheartedly?

 

[brooklynblunder]

i think the balance would be tough but I see it done at my MSTP, at the medical school and the graduate school, at conferences, etc. engineering + surg fits somewhat, in my opinion.

 

[Neuronix]

Most would argue you don't need a PhD for this. You will find resistance from many MD/PhD PDs for this reason, who want their students to do mostly bench research and go into more clinic based specialties than surgery.

But you can do what you want with your degrees. Academic jobs are no problem to get with an MD or MD/PhD if you don't mind making a lot less and spending a lot of extra time in training. Research experience is always available to you--it just depends on whether you invest time on the front end or the back end.

 

[vc7777]

Let me echo what Neuronix has said: I have been on the other side as a research engineer working on devices for over a decade before I returned to medical school (which is going awesome, btw). I was working closely with surgeons and interventionalists who have great ideas and do meaningful (and I should say some very profitable) research without a formal background. That is, you do not need a PhD - or even an undergraduate degree - in engineering to play in this field. Now, do they understand all of the nitty-gritty details of the engineering aspects? No - but that really isn't their role in this process.

I can't comment on the MSTP programs and how this career path would be received - but be aware that it isn't the only path forward.