med school to informatics

[chipwhitley]

Hi, I'm new here. My roommate uses this forum all the time and finds your advice helpful, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm a 4th year med student looking to switch gears into bioinformatics/medical informatics. I really don't enjoy clinical medicine at all and can't see myself surviving a 3-5 year residency program. I really struggled through 3rd year and am dreading my clinical rotations coming up in 4th year. I took the last year off to work on a medical informatics research project. It was kind of an accident as I was burned out / depressed looking for something to do and just managed to stumble onto it. It involved Python programming, which I learned over the course of the year and have gotten pretty decent at. I found that I really love programming/working with computers. I got a publication and really enjoyed the work. I looked at medical informatics fellowships, but they all seem to require that you've finished a residency and most of them don't really have much to do with programming, which is the part I really liked. There's also the option of doing a masters or PhD in bioinformatics or in computer science with specialization in bioinformatics? Or a second bachelors?

I'm trying to figure out which route would be the best to take. My ultimate goal is to either do research at a university or (preferably) work at a biotech company in a role that involves programming. I'm wondering whether or not I should apply to residency, and if I do and change my mind, can I back out? I don't think I'll hear back from Grad programs before March. I am really really dreading having to go to residency because I feel like I'll be banging my head against a wall for 3-5 years. On the other hand, I need to find something that I can pay my enormous loans off with.

Edit: fixed typo.

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[Awesome Sauceome]

A pre-med here, so not the more reputable source, but I was under the impression that you can get your MD/DO degree and then go work in places that are not involved in clinical work? I believe you could still go into research, big pharma, patent office work, or other stuff like that. I was under the impression that big pharma especially likes scooping up intelligent medical students who just hate clinical work.

So nothing specific, sorry.... just some stuff I have heard around town.

 

[Bold]

To the OP:

- You may want to check out IBM's opportunities, specifically those involved with Watson. There is a big push in that company for automation of health care delivery. There are many health related opportunities at IBM.

- There are several companies that do healthcare IT/big data consulting (i.e. McKinsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, etc.). Not sure how much programming is involved, but McKinsey actively recruits MDs.

- The mHealth space is blowing up. Lots of apps are being developed. Consider being a mobile programmer or starting a mHealth based company.

- This may sound crazy, but consider going back to school to obtain a degree if you don't plan to practice clinical medicine. It is very hard to find a job in industry with an MD and no residency. If you truly love what you do you shouldn't mind being in school, and if you get a research assistantship it will be positive income while youre in school.

- Don't lose hope. I myself am an MD who applied to the match 3 times, didn't match, and am now pursuing a degree and research career in informatics and/or healthcare analytics.

 

[alamo4]

Depending on your level of programming competency, it is very likely that if you position yourself well you can be making more than you would be making in residency working for a company.

There may be some options for you to do a bioinformatics clerkship, some schools have these clerkships:
http://vesta.cumc.columbia.edu/ps/electives/?page=view&id=263
You could use that to doe more of what you enjoy but in a clinical setting and see if you can find a role.

If you go the clinical route, the fellowships are going to be open lot of different kinds of board training. Pathology and radiology are both useful paths forward, and may not have some of the same issues for you with other residency programs.
http://systemsmedicine.stanford.edu/education/CI-Fellowship.html
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-ne...-clinical-informatics-fellowship-launche.html

Anyway, Stanford is the place that started the first clinical informatics fellowship partly because informatics is such a big deal here. If you are looking to go to grad school in biomedical informatics, Stanford often likes physicians who are good at programming to apply: http://bmi.stanford.edu

In general though, if you are a decent programmer, or can rapidly become one, there are definitely jobs for you in Silicon Valley. Jobs which can pay more than residency.

 

[DermViser]

A pre-med here, so not the more reputable source, but I was under the impression that you can get your MD/DO degree and then go work in places that are not involved in clinical work? I believe you could still go into research, big pharma, patent office work, or other stuff like that. I was under the impression that big pharma especially likes scooping up intelligent medical students who just hate clinical work.

So nothing specific, sorry.... just some stuff I have heard around town.

 

[PL198]

Depending on your level of programming competency, it is very likely that if you position yourself well you can be making more than you would be making in residency working for a company.

There may be some options for you to do a bioinformatics clerkship, some schools have these clerkships:
http://vesta.cumc.columbia.edu/ps/electives/?page=view&id=263
You could use that to doe more of what you enjoy but in a clinical setting and see if you can find a role.

If you go the clinical route, the fellowships are going to be open lot of different kinds of board training. Pathology and radiology are both useful paths forward, and may not have some of the same issues for you with other residency programs.
http://systemsmedicine.stanford.edu/education/CI-Fellowship.html
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-ne...-clinical-informatics-fellowship-launche.html

Anyway, Stanford is the place that started the first clinical informatics fellowship partly because informatics is such a big deal here. If you are looking to go to grad school in biomedical informatics, Stanford often likes physicians who are good at programming to apply: http://bmi.stanford.edu

In general though, if you are a decent programmer, or can rapidly become one, there are definitely jobs for you in Silicon Valley. Jobs which can pay more than residency.

I mean yeah, but why go to medical school then....

 

[DermViser]

There are actual Medical/Clinical Informatics fellowships, some that are ACGME accredited.

 

[DermViser]

I mean yeah, but why go to medical school then....

Bc by going to medical school, you use EMR as a student and thus have a better insight as to what is good and what is not, that normal computer programmers don't have.

 

[PL198]

Bc by going to medical school, you use EMR as a student and thus have a better insight as to what is good and what is not, that normal computer programmers don't have.

eh I still say that if you are going that route, you're going to become disillusioned with the physician perspective, in that you wouldn't get enough exposure of it to have it be a solid enough foundation. Heck even practicing clinical physicians become disillusioned with it, so someone that never did a residency, I sorta have a hard time believing they'd keep that perspective.

 

[DermViser]

eh I still say that if you are going that route, you're going to become disillusioned with the physician perspective, in that you wouldn't get enough exposure of it to have it be a solid enough foundation. Heck even practicing clinical physicians become disillusioned with it, so someone that never did a residency, I sorta have a hard time believing they'd keep that perspective.

Or you could just do a prelim or transitional year and then do the fellowship.

 

[alamo4]

I mean yeah, but why go to medical school then....

The OP is in his 4th year of medical school, so that decision has already been made. He is planning his next steps.

 

[alamo4]

This is one of the new ACGME clinical informatics fellowships

http://systemsmedicine.stanford.edu/education/CI-Fellowship.html