Absolutely not. You need an MD to practice medicine, but I know some PhDs who do very patient oriented research. I know one PhD who "sees" patients (she's in Medical Genetics). And you can do straight research and never see a human with a straight MD. My uncle only has an MD and he detests patient work. He does almost exclusively research at a VA.
Absolutely not. You need an MD to practice medicine, but I know some PhDs who do very patient oriented research. I know one PhD who "sees" patients (she's in Medical Genetics). And you can do straight research and never see a human with a straight MD. My uncle only has an MD and he detests patient work. He does almost exclusively research at a VA.
your PhD example is the exception to the rule. A PhD in medical genetics is sorta like getting a PhD in clinical psychology-- by it's nature it's a clinical degree like an MD is. If you want to do patient related research and actually deal with the patients directly an MD is almost 100% of the time required or you need to work with an MD. If you have an MD or MD/PhD you can do it all yourself.
That's true. But his question was specifically about academic medicine as opposed to patient oriented medicine. And you can do academic medicine with an MD, PhD, or both.
there are several paths that can lead one's career towards academic medicine. some are easier. but i'm sure we can find examples of people who went into academic medicine or stumbled into it from different career angles and degree pathways.
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