MD/PhD without teaching?

[Hesperian]

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This question may sound kind of dumb, but I'm wondering if 80/20 physician scientists need to teach, or if they can spend 80% of their time in the lab and 20% in patient contact, without any teaching whatsoever. I'm not American by the way and I never understood why US researchers almost always also teach.

Also, as a second question: if I get my MD from my home country (Argentina), and then get a PhD from an American university, would I qualify as a physician scientist? With this I mean if I could get the same jobs as someone with an MD from America. I would be doing my residency in an American hospital, of course.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ImagineThis]

This question may sound kind of dumb, but I'm wondering if 80/20 physician scientists need to teach, or if they can spend 80% of their time in the lab and 20% in patient contact, without any teaching whatsoever. I'm not American by the way and I never understood why US researchers almost always also teach.

Also, as a second question: if I get my MD from my home country (Argentina), and then get a PhD from an American university, would I qualify as a physician scientist? With this I mean if I could get the same jobs as someone with an MD from America. I would be doing my residency in an American hospital, of course.

Thanks in advance.

So regarding your first point, I do not know the percentage of physician-scientists who teach, but the 80/20 statistic is generally reserved for exactly what you said- 80% of time in lab and 20% of time seeing patients. I do know that a lot of physician-scientists do indeed teach, but I think that is part of holding academic positions at a university.

On your second question, from my understanding, a physician-scientist is more of a career path than a degree. You are a physician-scientist if you do both clinical care and biomedical research. If you did your residency in an American hospital AND a PhD, I couldn't imagine that you would have trouble getting a job where you would be able to do patients and conduct research, assuming that you were well qualified.

Best of luck.

 

[BrightandClear]

This question may sound kind of dumb, but I'm wondering if 80/20 physician scientists need to teach, or if they can spend 80% of their time in the lab and 20% in patient contact, without any teaching whatsoever. I'm not American by the way and I never understood why US researchers almost always also teach.

Also, as a second question: if I get my MD from my home country (Argentina), and then get a PhD from an American university, would I qualify as a physician scientist? With this I mean if I could get the same jobs as someone with an MD from America. I would be doing my residency in an American hospital, of course.

Thanks in advance.

In regards to your first question, I'm by no means an expert, but ... many MD/PhDs hold tenured-track positions at academic medical centers. When you go up for tenure, part of what you are judged on (i.e. have to have done well in order to be awarded tenure) is your teaching record at the university. Classroom courses, teaching in the clinic/hospital, guest lectures, etc., can all be considered teaching. However, at some universities, medical school faculty are judged by the same tenure criteria as faculty from the rest of the university. This can increase the difficulty of being awarded tenure, because tenure committees may be used to seeing the more typical undergrad/grad type teaching, and may not see teaching done with med students/residents as teaching. See where I'm going with this?

The above is my understanding based on discussions with my PI. Hopefully more experienced folks will also weigh in with their perspectives.

 

[Choculitis]

You can definitely get your MD in your home country, provided you do a US residency. Elias Zerhouni, the former director of the NIH, did his MD in Algeria and then his residency at Johns Hopkins.

 

[Hesperian]

Thanks again for the answers, now I know I'm on the right track.

 

[Fencer]

You need to do 3 yrs of US residency in ACGME accredited program. The rule for 3 yrs is due to some states having rules about minimum amount of US clinical experience to get a medical license. That is the difference between been able to be considered MD PhD or just PhD, which at minimum, means an extra $20K of salary if you are in the lab, or greater if you actually are seeing patients.

Teaching has many facets. You are probably referring to lecturing in a large hall with many students. That might occur for some, but most clinician scientists do teaching to medical students and residents while doing rounds, using a patient as an example.

 

[Hesperian]

You need to do 3 yrs of US residency in ACGME accredited program. The rule for 3 yrs is due to some states having rules about minimum amount of US clinical experience to get a medical license. That is the difference between been able to be considered MD PhD or just PhD, which at minimum, means an extra $20K of salary if you are in the lab, or greater if you actually are seeing patients.

Teaching has many facets. You are probably referring to lecturing in a large hall with many students. That might occur for some, but most clinician scientists do teaching to medical students and residents while doing rounds, using a patient as an example.

So you earn extra by having the MD even if you don't actually see patients: that's very good. I'm definitely sure that I will be doing research, what I don't know is if I'll feel that working in a hospital might help my investigation.

And you are right about teaching, I wasn't thinking about rounds, but still: I'm mostly interested in researching throughout my whole life, and medicine is the only science I'm truly passionate about.

Thanks for the answer, and even though my questiones were answered if anyone else wants to comment anything else keep in mind that I will be checking this thread.