Combined degree programs

[notevenpremed]

i had a quick questions (more than 1)
do docs with MD/MBA's ever start a private practice(rural) or just health care management

also , do MD/PH.D doctors make more money than other physcians or not? what kind of residency would an MD/Ph.D do if his degree was in pharmacology ,Anesthesiology ? and if they got their degree in say neurosciences would they have to be a neurologists or neurosurgeon or some neurology field to use their degree in research or what?

What is your take on MD/Ph.D/MBA doctors do they ever use their MBA is their in research or vice versa would they use they Ph.D if they were in management or running a hospital ? or is that just a waste of time.

thanks for your time and input


P.S. i put it in the pre-med thread cuz i did not think it went in any other section ,correct if if i missplaced it

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[BigRedPremed]

Most MD/PhD's go into academic medicine (meaning they do lab research and teach at a med school).

 

[ryandote]

i had a quick questions (more than 1)
do docs with MD/MBA's ever start a private practice(rural) or just health care management

also , do MD/PH.D doctors make more money than other physcians or not? what kind of residency would an MD/Ph.D do if his degree was in pharmacology ,Anesthesiology ? and if they got their degree in say neurosciences would they have to be a neurologists or neurosurgeon or some neurology field to use their degree in research or what?

What is your take on MD/Ph.D/MBA doctors do they ever use their MBA is their in research or vice versa would they use they Ph.D if they were in management or running a hospital ? or is that just a waste of time.

thanks for your time and input


P.S. i put it in the pre-med thread cuz i did not think it went in any other section ,correct if if i missplaced it

MD/MBA's do both of those things. Incidentally, so do MD's. If you have the capability and the interest, you can probably accomplish just about anything in the medical field (probably a lot of other fields, too) you want to with only an MD. However, an MBA can give you a specific skillset that may be valuable if you know exactly what you want to accomplish on the business end. Most of the advice that I have heard given is to only do an MD/MBA if you know you want to do something that requires some of those specific skills.

As for for MD/PhD compensation, I speculate that if you crunched the numbers you would find MD/PhD's making less money than than an MD in the same field. My theory is based on the idea that most MD/PhD's choose to work in an academic setting, as opposed to more financially-oriented private practices. However, if you isolate MD/PhD's in the private sector, they might make more money as consultants, company officers, company owners, etc. This is just speculation, and I'll be interested to hear everyone else's opinion.

I'd assume that most MD/PhD's obtain their PhD in a field related to their medical interest. (Pharm to Anesth - Neuro to Neuro) I think that many MD/PhD's interested in medical research obtain the PhD as part of their interest in research, and maybe as an inroad to do research as faculty at a University. You don't need a PhD to do medical research, and I don't think you need a PhD to become research faculty at a University.

As far as "using" your PhD in management or your MBA in bench research, it's a little hard to imagine. Also, it kind of sounds like a waste of time to me.

In the end, maybe you are asking whether piling up letters behind your name will help you climb the rungs on the salary ladder. Not directly, if at all. People with more education generally make more money, but there is a decreasing marginal return to this correlation.

Anyway...

 

[notevenpremed]

MD/MBA's do both of those things. Incidentally, so do MD's. If you have the capability and the interest, you can probably accomplish just about anything in the medical field (probably a lot of other fields, too) you want to with only an MD. However, an MBA can give you a specific skillset that may be valuable if you know exactly what you want to accomplish on the business end. Most of the advice that I have heard given is to only do an MD/MBA if you know you want to do something that requires some of those specific skills.

As for for MD/PhD compensation, I speculate that if you crunched the numbers you would find MD/PhD's making less money than than an MD in the same field. My theory is based on the idea that most MD/PhD's choose to work in an academic setting, as opposed to more financially-oriented private practices. However, if you isolate MD/PhD's in the private sector, they might make more money as consultants, company officers, company owners, etc. This is just speculation, and I'll be interested to hear everyone else's opinion.

I'd assume that most MD/PhD's obtain their PhD in a field related to their medical interest. (Pharm to Anesth - Neuro to Neuro) I think that many MD/PhD's interested in medical research obtain the PhD as part of their interest in research, and maybe as an inroad to do research as faculty at a University. You don't need a PhD to do medical research, and I don't think you need a PhD to become research faculty at a University.

As far as "using" your PhD in management or your MBA in bench research, it's a little hard to imagine. Also, it kind of sounds like a waste of time to me.

In the end, maybe you are asking whether piling up letters behind your name will help you climb the rungs on the salary ladder. Not directly, if at all. People with more education generally make more money, but there is a decreasing marginal return to this correlation.

Anyway...

thanks very clear i am curious of other opinion on MD/Ph.D's making less than MDs ,that sounds sad ,but what you saod sounds true .

 

[Meatwad]

thanks very clear i am curious of other opinion on MD/Ph.D's making less than MDs ,that sounds sad ,but what you saod sounds true .

Academics doesn't pay as well as private practice. Look at what researchers make; then look at what specialists in your area make. It's pretty simple to see why this is as well, with the way each is compensated. One's a business, one is a "job," so to speak. A lot of academic physicians do some clinical work, but it's not enough to bump them into the income brackets private practice docs are in.

 

[meowkat444]

yes, it's true--if md/phds go on to do what md/phds were trained to do (academic medicine), they do generally make less. nobody should get that degree for the money.

 

[ryandote]

thanks very clear i am curious of other opinion on MD/Ph.D's making less than MDs ,that sounds sad ,but what you saod sounds true .

I'm not sure it's sad, exactly. I mean, if you are out to earn money...just skip the extra 4-5 years! Start with an MD: you'll be able to focus on patients or money (whichever you choose) and you can still do all the research you'd like to.

However, if you already know that you would like to spend at least 50% of your time doing research, go ahead and incoporate it into your medical school curriculum with an MD/PhD. I think it will give you a leg up on conducting research and running a lab. Rather than getting a PhD to allow you to do research, I think getting a PhD in addition to an MD is more of a byproduct of your interest in research. We all know that you need an MD to practice medicine, but you don't need a PhD to practice research. It just comes with the territory if you really want to do research and so you sign up for that track.

I suppose that you could target a specific career that would definitely be furthered by a PhD (healthcare consultant, some type of medical engineer, hi-level officer in a company, etc) but I don't think there are as many private-practice-MD/PhD career paths laid out for you.

Once again, I would like to re-iterate that this advice is coming from personal observation, advice, and mostly experience in a summer research program at a major university that included weekly seminars with many MD/PhD-types and such.

One shining star was a guy who is an interventional cardiologist with a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology and an associate professor at the University. He is also the owner/CEO/chief researcher of a biosciences company that just glued an antibiotic to cardiology stents. Brilliant and probably a millionaire.

I guess one point I want to hit again is that more degrees does not equal more money, particularly in this case.

 

[Critical Mass]

It would be very difficult to show a correlation between salary and mudphud status. A lot of mudphuds go into academics only (not very high paying), but some then turn around and patent something they make to become very wealthy. Really the biggest monetary benefit comes during the training even though it necessitates the forfeiture of substantial future pay.

I've never really met a person for whom MD/PhD was the right choice before, during, and after the training. I thus have reservations over whether or not somebody is able to commit to such a program before the first day of medical school.

MD/MPH? I can't see cash as the motivating factor for that combined program.

 

[notevenpremed]

critical mass, i meant MD/MBA ( I thought i said that ?) and was asking what are career choices for them and is any started private practice and if it helped them