Epidemiology

[Sanman]

I've heard of MD's who are clinical epidemiologists and the the field itself is very interesting. My question is how does one go about becoming an epidemiologist. I know about the masters and PhD programs but are there fellowships after medical school that would award such a degree? Sorry if i'm not making sense its almost 2 am and I haven't gotten much sleep for days. I'm going to bed. Thanks in advance for any responses

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[Popoy]

You might want to look into a dual degree in addition to your medical degree....

Masters in Health Care Adminitration
Masters in Public Health

I know these two have emphasis on epidemiological studies....

 

[Neurogirl]

I'm not sure about how other programs work, but at my school, the MPH was the primary degree. Within the MPH there were several different educational tracks: epidemiology, health care admin., environmental health and statistics. Although there was some overlap (I had to take 2 stats courses and one course in each of the other areas (environmental health and health care admin.) each track had a specific list of requirements. I know some programs offer the MHA, but I doubt that such a degree would include enough epidemiology to be really useful.

The other route to clinical epi is via residency after med school. There are no fellowships but there are Public Health residencies. A portion of the residency is spent getting an MPH.

Most physicians who are clinical epidemiologists have their medical degree (DO/MD) and either a MPH or PhD. There are a few (mostly old timers) who have just the medical degree, however, in todays marketplace you'll need the extra training. With a medical degree and just the MPH in epi, you can do just about anything in the field you want (CDC, state epidemiologist, biotech, pharmaceuticals, academia, etc.) the PhD is not usually a requirement. Hope this answers most of your questions.

Neurogirl DO, MPH

 

[phd2b]

Shoot me an email for any details, but I'd suggest that you look into a reputable MPH program or EIS via the following links:
http://www.asph.org/aa_section.cfm/151
http://www.apha.org/public_health/epidemiology.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/eis/

Good luck!

phd2b

 

[Skinship]

Case Western Reserve University has a funded, M.D.-Ph.D. program specifically in Epidemiology & Biostatistics (Division of Health Services Research)that is presently administered separately from their MSTP program

The following is the URL to a press release: <a href="http://www.cwru.edu/pubs/cnews/1999/1-14/md-phd.htm" target="_blank">http://www.cwru.edu/pubs/cnews/1999/1-14/md-phd.htm</a>

Good luck!