MD vs. MD/PhD

[premd]

If I want to split my time between clinical practice and research, can I just get an MD or do I have to get an MD/PhD?

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[DrBowtie]

Depends on what kind of research you are talking about.

 

[Bluntman]

Oh boy, where to begin....

 

[snobored18]

If I want to split my time between clinical practice and research, can I just get an MD or do I have to get an MD/PhD?

If you wouldn't consider getting a PhD outside of a combined program, you are probably alright with the MD + postdoc route or a residency with a substantial research component. If you like research enough to say hey I want to get a PhD at some point and would be willing to do it even if your med school wasn't being paid for then you should probably look into the MSTP route.

 

[Bluntman]

Straight MDs can do research, but their form of "research" is typically historical/stats type stuff. Like for instance asking the question "Does treatment X correlate with outcome Y?" and then digging up the statistics from published medical data to find the answer. For regular MDs to go into "real" (i.e. experimental) research, you'll have to typically do some type of research fellowship to get into the game.

You're definitely not the only one wrangling with this issue tho...there is some good debate about whether (for someone who knows they want to go into lab research) it is better to go MD/PhD or MD+research fellowship.

I'd search around the physician scientist forum, cause I remember there were some good threads on this topic.

 

[szhao]

Guys, I am ignorant here so bear with me. I was wondering how do people usually define "clinical science", is it more like a social science or a natural science if you were to categorize it.

~Steve (LOL, why not use actual names, who really cares)

 

[LizzyM]

Clinical science is more "bedside" than bench, e.g. what effect does this experimental drug have when we give it to people? How do we evaluate the effect of the drug, how do we assess side effects and determine is adverse events are due to the drug, the disease we're treating, or just random events related to neither the disease nor the drug?

Docs (without PhDs) but with research-intensive fellowship training (sub-specialty training) might also do bench research. I suspect that this is particularly common in the surgical specialities where some techniques are tried in animals before being used in humans.