If I want to do research about diseases, new kinds of treatments, drugs, etc. Should I go to med school?
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Do I need to go to med school to be a medical researcher?
- Thread starter cpolak
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Probably not.
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You can do basic science research in many fields and have a positive impact on the field of medicine without intersecting with patients.
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As others have said, you don't need an MD to do biomedical research.
I once spoke with a student who stated she was reluctantly premed because she "had to be an MD to do human tissue research." I hope she's learned this is false by now, as I thought it was weird at the time but wasn't sure enough to say anything to her about it...
I once spoke with a student who stated she was reluctantly premed because she "had to be an MD to do human tissue research." I hope she's learned this is false by now, as I thought it was weird at the time but wasn't sure enough to say anything to her about it...
MD/PhD would open the most doors and get you the best funding/respect in your medical research career. Long road.
Many MDs have excellent research careers (often in clinical trials as well as basic sciences)
Many PhDs have excellent research careers (often basic sciences with more time available to devote to more involved studies).
I'd recommend that you get research experience in labs with both MD and PhD PIs and figure out which path looks more attractive to you.
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No you do not need to be an MD or DO to do disease research. The majority of our teaching faculty the first two years of medical school are researchers in their field and nearly all have been PhD's. Ex. "Hi I'm Dr. Smith, PhD. I research diabetes, and today I'm here to lecture you about diabetes."
As someone else said I would only recommend medical school if you want to work with patients. Many MD's do research of course, but it would be rare to see an MD that exclusively does research. Therefore if you only want to do research, PhD would probably be the way to go. If you think you might want to care for patients as well, MD or MD/PhD would be viable options.
As someone else said I would only recommend medical school if you want to work with patients. Many MD's do research of course, but it would be rare to see an MD that exclusively does research. Therefore if you only want to do research, PhD would probably be the way to go. If you think you might want to care for patients as well, MD or MD/PhD would be viable options.
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No, you don't. The main benefit to MD/PhD would be the ability to go from "bench to bedside" directly.
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To give a little more background, the short answer, as many others have intimated, is no. Going to medical schools is one of the ways to enter medical and biomedical research and probably the most viable route for entry to clinical research.
Other routes include (but feel free to add to this, everyone else):
PhD, which can lead to basic, pharmaceutical, or clinical research, all of which deal with drug development and disease in some way (with basic probably being the most removed from patients)
MPH, which, as you might expect, deals with public health issues.
Epidemiology, which I know about cursorily, but since I don't want to put my foot in my mouth, I'll let someone else explain it.
And other routes. In other words, medical school is definitely not the only way to pursue medical research.
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I wouldn't be so quick to throw out the term "basic" in PhD medical research. There are lots of detailed studies out there from physiologists and cell biologists. You don't need an MD to understand to be a specialist studying a particular organ or disease, etc.
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Who are you responding to? My reply addresses the myriad fields you can enter as a phd.
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"Basic" isn't being used here as a derogatory term. Basic science research is a term used to describe research that isn't clinical. It's just a different category of research.
If you're referring to my post, "basic" was used to indicate non-clinical/translational research with a focus on understanding the fundamentals of a given biological phenomenon/disease. This is contrasted with research specifically aimed at a proposed or existing medical treatment.
Again, there are plenty of MD's that do basic science research (and do it well.) This is a common means of classifying research objectives and not a pejorative expression.
