MD necessary for public health?

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starlight15

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I'm very interested in the field of public health and medicine and have been contemplating doing an MD/MPH program. I just wanted to hear from different people about what they think are the benefits to having an MD and working in a public health setting and vice versa (having an MPH as a doctor).

I am passionate about both fields, yet I can only think of concrete reasons for how an mph will/can be helpful not how an MD can be useful even though it seems pretty obvious. I've met MD/MPHs and they either work only in the clinical setting or they work in the field for public health but rarely do they do both...

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No an MD is not necessary to work in public health.

MD/MPH programs exist, but they really shouldn't. Very few people need both degrees. And if you do get an MD, the best course of action is to get your MPH after graduating med school and beginning to practice.
 
Virtually no one gets in MD with the sole purpose of doing public health policy. The MD/MPH degree is more flexible for obvious reasons, but if you want to do public policy as a career, an MPH is all you need.
 
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It's not necessary. But If you want to provide medical treatment (in a public health agency) then of course (e.g. being a doctor who provides care for TB patients in the TB Control Department of public health services).
 
No an MD is not necessary to work in public health.

MD/MPH programs exist, but they really shouldn't. Very few people need both degrees. And if you do get an MD, the best course of action is to get your MPH after graduating med school and beginning to practice.
I guess I should have been more clear in the thread title. I'm aware that an MD is not necessary (and most likely a waste of time if I'm going to only be working in policy, etc).. but what would be the benefits of having an MD and working in underserved communities in the US or a developing country?
 
The big divider is that MD/DO can do clinical work treating the patients, while public health people cannot.
 
I guess I should have been more clear in the thread title. I'm aware that an MD is not necessary (and most likely a waste of time if I'm going to only be working in policy, etc).. but what would be the benefits of having an MD and working in underserved communities in the US or a developing country?

Well of course it would help, an MD is a very powerful degree. It just depends on what your career goals are. If patient care is important, than an MD is critical. If you are just involved in policy, it will probably help, but is it worth the 4 years and $300,000?
 
Well of course it would help, an MD is a very powerful degree. It just depends on what your career goals are. If patient care is important, than an MD is critical. If you are just involved in policy, it will probably help, but is it worth the 4 years and $300,000?
To me, they are both important- patient care and not necessarily policy but education, outreach, empowerment. I'm working on my personal statement now and I feel like I mention a lot of the benefits to public health but not really how medicine ties into all that, except for the clinical/patient care aspect.
 
Given the number of schools offering combined MD and MPH degrees
https://www.aamc.org/students/mdmph/
there appears to be a demand for the credentials and plenty of schools willing to meet the demand.

Looking at the table of contents of any of the big medical journals (JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, etc) will show that many articles are authored by people with MD and MPH degrees. Each degree equips you with a different skill set and many people find it useful to have both, particularly those interested in population science, infectious disease, outbreak investigations, health policy, and patient education.
 
I think it would be a waste of time. If I had your goal, I'd do an mpp/mph combined program like the one at USC.
 
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