MD/MS and MD/MPH?

[clarkalim]

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-What's the difference?
-What are the pros/cons to earning one degree over the other?
-With these two degrees, are you restricted to clinical research only, or can you also do bench research?
-With these two degrees, you can complete them within the four years of medical school, right?

 

[DrJosephKim]

If you're comparing an MS in Public Health vs. an MPH, they're essentially the same.

 

[URHere]

-What's the difference?
-What are the pros/cons to earning one degree over the other?
-With these two degrees, are you restricted to clinical research only, or can you also do bench research?
-With these two degrees, you can complete them within the four years of medical school, right?

I am assuming that you are talking about the MS/MPH programs that exist as dual degree options in medical school.

Each degree has its benefits - many MS programs give students the option of joining a research lab for a year and taking graduate level courses/journal clubs with PhD students. There is time for presenting posters, traveling to conferences, and possibly even publishing if the year is a productive and lucky one. This is a good option for medical students who want more exposure to (generally basic science or lab-based) research.

The MPH, on the other hand, is a public health degree. At my school, this MPH students mainly focus on epidemiology research (looking at incidence rates of a disease and comparing them across different countries, populations, etc).

Generally, either of these degrees will require an extra year in addition to medical school. At some schools, that may be longer.

You are never restricted to one type of research - even if you don't complete any kind of dual degree. If you want to do bench research, you can get research training during residency/fellowship, or even afterward.

 

[PfNO22]

-What's the difference?
-What are the pros/cons to earning one degree over the other?
-With these two degrees, are you restricted to clinical research only, or can you also do bench research?
-With these two degrees, you can complete them within the four years of medical school, right?

MPH: think about the science of how populations are affected by disease (or health). Basic science refers mostly to how systems in the body behave/are/change in disease/health. MPH is really a clinical research degree.

MS: totally depends on the field. Epidemiology, biostatistics, etc. are geared towards clinical. Cell biology, immunology, etc. are geared towards bench science, basic science.

An MS is by no means a substitute for a PhD. I have an MS, I know I am not a PhD.

I think an MD/MPH will take you 5 years instead of 4 and will cost more.


MDs do basic science too! it is not only MD/PhDs that do that! so an MD/MS would just be a further step along that path I suppose.

Are there any faculty at your school you can email? When I have emailed or spoken with faculty regarding advising me on educational programs, they have been very, very helpful and very receptive. Yes, they are all busy, but they like to help too.


My advice to you: Find a science talk at your school or somewhere nearby that is being given by an MD/MPH or MD/MS, (you can generally check their credentials) and that is about a subject you find interesting. Go to the talk, and if it was interesting, go up to the speaker afterwards, say you enjoyed the talk and you wanted to speak with her sometime about being an MD/MPH. Worked for me!

There are so many people out there who want to help you! Face to face advice is much more pleasing than advice from a web forum. You can get much more personal without revealing your personal details to the whole world.

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