MD-PhD Curriculum in MSTPs

[blazinfury]

I was just wondering if most MSTPs had a standardized curriculum, where students integrate their MD curriculum with PhD courses during their first two years. I have spoken to 2 ad-coms and it was done this way respectively in both schools, but I was just wondering if this is done in all schools this way. In addition, is there flexibility in doing this. For instance, can one postpone one of their PhD courses during their first 2 years for a later time? Also, is PhD biochem taken instead of med school biochem in most places? I was just wondering and if by not taking med school biochem, one's performance is affected in clinical cases on the Boards. Thanks.

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[Build]

Most programs tend to have you take just the standard med school courses for the first two years. When you switch to grad school, it becomes dependent on the individual depts to decide what classes to give you graduate credit for.

 

[nothingman]

Agree with above. In our program, we take the standard med curriculum, with one additional grad school course each semester, which in the first semester (or now, maybe first year) is an MD-PhD only journal club.

Upon entering grad school, we get credit toward one year's of PhD coursework from med school basic science (in most departments having to do with biomedical research) and thus are required to only do one more year of PhD classes before taking the prelim, as opposed to the two years that our PhD only colleagues take.

I'm not sure if all programs have this arrangement - but I imagine some kind of cross-creditation is common.

 

[Neuronix]

Also, is PhD biochem taken instead of med school biochem in most places?

I don't think so. It wasn't here, even if you are in the biochem department.

I was just wondering and if by not taking med school biochem, one's performance is affected in clinical cases on the Boards. Thanks.

Not sure where you'd actually need biochem on the boards. I'm not sure it came up at all on my step 1. I don't think there's any of that on step 2 or 3.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Biochem may appear on the boards but is often not so much about things like the Krebs cycle, so much as inborn errors of metabolism and their clinical picture, or understand the sort of biochem that would otherwise be considered physiology/pharmacology, e.g. insulin's actions and interactions with other factors.

 

[nothingman]

I'd have to say that I had to unlearn biochem from the medschool course to study for the boards curriculum in the q-banks and review books... And yes, it seemed to have been very lightly represented on the test.

 

[blazinfury]

Is the same true for cell bio as well?

Also, just as a side question, do you feel that your med school courses as a whole helped you in some way in your PhD courses. I am just curious if the medical side helped to enriched the PhD portion and gave you a clearer picture, as a whole, of say disease processes and things to that effect.

 

[fibrosis mudfud]

I do think that some of my med school knowledge has helped during grad school. I am in an immunology program and I think med school has helped with understanding some of the disease models and how they are/are not actually applicable to human disease. It also helps during intros to talks when I can speak correctly about how my work relates to disease. I have found that even some very accomplished PhD researchers don't completely understand some of the disease processes.

I will also say that I think histology might have been the most helpful med school class for grad school. Histology isn't offered to the grad students at my school, and when we get to any histo in journal club discussions, most grad students don't really know what to look for or what they are looking at.

 

[Freak]

I agree with the histo comment ... I was able to look at an EM and understand it (and actually question what the researcher was interpreting), whereas my PhD colleagues were somewhat confused by it.

Immuno also helped alot (for all of the pathway/development talks). Micro also helped when people started discussing pathogens and bioterrorism.

Also, the knowledge of med school stops you from asking some "dumb" questions that are either 1. impossible or 2. obvious. At my med school, we are very research heavy curricula in the first year, so I actually was able to go to a range of talks and have a basic understanding.