Listing COMPLETELY different research interests in MD/PhD secondaries.

[and 99 others]

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I'm applying to an MD/PhD program and they ask on the secondary to list research interests and possible faculty I would want to work with. I am interested in population health research but have done precisely zero research in the field. All of my research, pubs, and posters are in biomedical wet lab research. Specifically neuroscience. However, I don't want to go into neuroscience. The rest of my app through volunteering and such is geared towards community work with underprivileged immigrant and minority groups and that is where my interests lie.

Would it be detrimental to list non-biomedical research interests despite all of my experience in this field being in community volunteering and political advocacy? My story is that doing bench research showed me how I can have a much broader positive impact beyond the clinic by conducting research in general and that I want to apply this to community health for underprivileged populations

 

[907914]

I'm applying to an MD/PhD program and they ask on the secondary to list research interests and possible faculty I would want to work with. I am interested in population health research but have done precisely zero research in the field. All of my research, pubs, and posters are in biomedical wet lab research. Specifically neuroscience. However, I don't want to go into neuroscience. The rest of my app through volunteering and such is geared towards community work with underprivileged immigrant and minority groups and that is where my interests lie.

Would it be detrimental to list non-biomedical research interests despite all of my experience in this field being in community volunteering and political advocacy? My story is that doing bench research showed me how I can have a much broader positive impact beyond the clinic by conducting research in general and that I want to apply this to community health for underprivileged populations

I am not sure if it would be different for MD/PhD application, but I did exactly this on my Stanford/KH application. I talked about how my experiences with underserved patients and organizing community health events inspired an interest in exploring new methods of preventative care delivery/population trends etc. Tied in my wet lab research in a “understanding the patient at the chemical level and how those interactions affect larger population trends” sort of way. Can’t tell you if it worked or not yet, but I felt confident with it being a solid essay/topic.

 

[Engrailed]

+1. Im curious to see what others think. I would imagine that they would see that your research experiences demonstrate your research aptitude that wold be applicable to other fields, no? I mean is this also similar to where MD PhDs do their PhD in one field and then specialize in a completely different field later? (Ive seen this happen)

 

[907914]

their PhD in one field and then specialize in a completely different field later?

This. My biotech PI did a PhD in entomology followed by a post-doc in genomics...

 

[Engrailed]

This. My biotech PI did a PhD in entomology followed by a post-doc in genomics...

Personally, I have always kind of felt weird about it. Like... you spent 4 years on a pHd and wouldn't it strengthen your background if you went into a specialty aligned in that topic? But I think it's like when students go into their MD PHD program, they veer off what they originally thought they would study/specialize in (during their first 2 yrs in med school), accounting for the divergence

 

[faerie62]

This is just my personal thought but I do not think this would go over well.
It would be one thing if your experience were in neuroscience and you wanted to do something in cancer bio or something where you had at least a grasp on the experimental techniques and the day to day life of someone doing that type of research. It would also be fine if you had any sort of background in population health research. Other things to keep in mind is that there are limited programs who will allow you to go into non-traditional fields and these may have additional application requirements, eg. taking the GRE.
However once you are in a program it depends on the leadership, but in general it is much more flexible if you wanted to go into something different.

 

[pBar]

This is just my personal thought but I do not think this would go over well.
It would be one thing if your experience were in neuroscience and you wanted to do something in cancer bio or something where you had at least a grasp on the experimental techniques and the day to day life of someone doing that type of research. It would also be fine if you had any sort of background in population health research. Other things to keep in mind is that there are limited programs who will allow you to go into non-traditional fields and these may have additional application requirements, eg. taking the GRE.
However once you are in a program it depends on the leadership, but in general it is much more flexible if you wanted to go into something different.

Piggie backing off of this. It would seem odd to talk about research interests in population health if you had no experience with research in it or a related field. If I were on an MD/PhD admission committee and saw this, it would lead me to ask "why didn't the applicant get more involved in such research prior to applying?"

I am currently applying to MD/PHD programs in a similar field, health policy, but only after having had significant time researching in fields such as policy, communications, and social behavioral health. Few programs offer non-traditional MD/PhD tracts so you have to really search for such programs, and further be able to sell yourself and why you think such a PhD could benefit your career goals. A GRE is sometimes required, especially if the nontraditional area is outside of standard public health.

 

[Engrailed]

Okay, as a followup to what some others have also said on here...
If you haven't done the research, how do you know you'd like it?
Do they want to take a chance on someone who wants to get a PhD in something totally different + they dont have a track record for?
PhD students (regular grad school) drop out for various reasons even if they love their field.