DO-MPH at PCOM?

[JT76]

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Does anyone have any information about the combined DO-MPH program at PCOM?

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Does anyone have any information about the combined DO-MPH program at PCOM?

No, but I have information about the bold option when typing...haha. I'm not in the combined MPH program but I know one person that did the program. The DO/MBA program seems to be more popular with students at PCOM. Anyways, the MPH portion is through Temple's school of public health and I believe the concentration is in community health. The curriculum is stretched out to 5 years to give you time to complete the MPH simultaneously.

Having done my MPH before starting med school, I would highly recommend it. Going to public health school will teach you, in-depth, about things you will probably just scrape the surface of in med school (ie. epi/biostats/etc etc).

 

[frankrizzo18]

Could you be a little more explicit about the benefits you noticed regarding doing a public health degree prior to medical school? Thanks

No, but I have information about the bold option when typing...haha. I'm not in the combined MPH program but I know one person that did the program. The DO/MBA program seems to be more popular with students at PCOM. Anyways, the MPH portion is through Temple's school of public health and I believe the concentration is in community health. The curriculum is stretched out to 5 years to give you time to complete the MPH simultaneously.

Having done my MPH before starting med school, I would highly recommend it. Going to public health school will teach you, in-depth, about things you will probably just scrape the surface of in med school (ie. epi/biostats/etc etc).

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Could you be a little more explicit about the benefits you noticed regarding doing a public health degree prior to medical school? Thanks

Hey,

Lets see, where do I begin. Public health is a very broad term. There are several concentrations within public health. Epidemiology/biostats, community health, international health, international health policy, maternal and child health, environmental and occupational health, etc, etc depending on the school. In most MPH programs, you will take at least a class or two in most of the above concentrations as well as classes about the US healthcare system (obviously, VERY important if you're thinking of being a clinician!).

People always told me "doing an MPH opens your eyes." I never really knew what they meant until I did my MPH. I did my MPH in epi/biostats so I got to concentrate on disease at the population level (MD/DO's learn it at the molecular/path level). I got to take classes in health behavior (one of my favorites), health communication, biostats and study design (VERY important), SAS (Statistics program...people get paid big $$$ for knowing how to use this program...not to mention residency programs will love for it). I can't even begin to tell you how clueless the majority of medical students are when it comes to public health, especially epi/biostats. As a physician, you'll probably have to do research at some point (maybe) or you'll have to find papers on a certain topic (gauranteed). How will you interprete the results? Do you really know what a "p-value means?" Whats this confidence interval they keep talking about? And these are the BASIC things you'll learn in week 1 of your MPH program. Most medical schools do a poor job of teaching these things. Epi/biostats/ethics/underwater basket weaving is usually lumped together and taught to you in like 1 month in med school.

Before I close, I'll leave you with a quote from my biostats professor (brilliant guy). "Some of the most poorly designed studies are done by clinicians!" Hope that helps. Take care.