infectious Dz questions

[Mr hawkings]

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Hello, i am a med school applicant and i was wondering if anyone has an answer to a couple of questions:
first, has anyone ever heard of someone that did their residency in something surgery or something else unrelated to internal medicine and then did an infectious disease fellowship? please let me know if this would even be possible or if you HAVE to do internal medicine to do that as a sub-specialty.
Also, is it possible for somesone with just an MD (withour pHd) to do research on something unrelated to their specialty.
my problem is that i am interested in general surgery as a specialty but i also want to pursue my research interests (malaria vaccine development). with these two conflicting interests, i've been told that if i dont do MD-pHD, i'll have to pick one and forget about a carreer in the other.
any comments?
please help

 

[macdown]

i've been told that if i dont do MD-pHD, i'll have to pick one and forget about a carreer in the other.

Not true, there are many basic science reasearch fellowships available in sugery as well as everyother specialty. In fact most academic residencies (gen surg included) require a year spent in a laboratory doing research. There are also many MD's running basic science labs at major academic centers across the country, they are definatly in the minority, but it is not uncommon.

 

[Mr hawkings]

Not true, there are many basic science reasearch fellowships available in sugery as well as everyother specialty. In fact most academic residencies (gen surg included) require a year spent in a laboratory doing research. There are also many MD's running basic science labs at major academic centers across the country, they are definatly in the minority, but it is not uncommon.

thanks for the reply. Arent those fellowships usually somehow related to their sub-specialty though? I'm just worried that a residency program will have problems with a general surgery resident wanting to do research in malaria (which i could never apply to my practice in the hospital as a surgeon).

 

[macdown]

thanks for the reply. Arent those fellowships usually somehow related to their sub-specialty though? I'm just worried that a residency program will have problems with a general surgery resident wanting to do research in malaria (which i could never apply to my practice in the hospital as a surgeon).

Infectious diseases are very sailient to surgery and are often a large cause of morbidity. Yes, the fellowships would be geared towards your specialty, but you would ultimately be choosing the laboratory (and thus PI) as well as your topic of reasearch. I don't see it being inconceivable doing ID research as a surgical resident, It might be hard finding a lab doing malaria research as it relates to sugery, but I'm sure somewhere exists a lab. Your best bet would be to check with the NIH, they have a listing of research fellowships across the country.

Another option is a post-residency fellowship, which as the name implies is after residency. These types of fellowships offer a much wider range and flexability and do not have to be directly related to your post-graduate training. I used to work for an Orthopaedic surgeon who did a 2 year NIH fellowship in Cancer Biology and now runs a basic science lab studying bone cancer. So there really is no limit to what you can do, if you can think of it, it can be done.

 

[azzarah]

As a medical school applicant, you don't have to decide what you want to do your residency in yet. You have until the middle of your third year at least to decide.
Have you considered M.D./MPH? An MPH might be more useful if you want to go into vaccine development.....
Good luck!

 

[Mr hawkings]

As a medical school applicant, you don't have to decide what you want to do your residency in yet. You have until the middle of your third year at least to decide.
Have you considered M.D./MPH? An MPH might be more useful if you want to go into vaccine development.....
Good luck!

Thats a ggod point.
P.S. I was under the impression that MPH does does not offer much laboratory time.

 

[EMTLizzy]

Thats a ggod point.
P.S. I was under the impression that MPH does does not offer much laboratory time.

MPH has nothing to do with the laboratory, but vaccines have everything to do with public health.

 

[azzarah]

Well, the person here who gave us the vaccine pharm lectures was from the school of public health. 😀

 

[EMTLizzy]

Well, the person here who gave us the vaccine pharm lectures was from the school of public health. 😀

There are lots of divisions to a school of public health. An MPH degree (which I have) does not involve "hard science" or laboratory classes, though.

 

[Mr hawkings]

There are lots of divisions to a school of public health. An MPH degree (which I have) does not involve "hard science" or laboratory classes, though.

I want to be the guy dissecting mosquitos in the lab. 🙂 yeah, i know it doesnt sound appealing but i love it.

 

[roja]

I would wait for a while. YOu never know where you interests will go until you get into 3rd year. Keep an open mind. there are lots of options available to you....