Motivation for medicine... can I be frank?

[FigmundFreud]

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[Gibbward]

Aren't there PhD programs in Health Policy or Global Health? There are also Doctor of Public Health programs, which sounds like they would be perfect for what you would want to do.

 

[FigmundFreud]

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[DKMA]

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[jk818]

I agree with the above posters - a graduate program would suit you well. Going into medical school with no interest in being a clinician is a lot of time and money sunk to learn skills that would not be useful for what you want to do.

 

[Moko]

There are. I should have phrased that better: most people I've consulted have said that you'll be taken most seriously if you're a physician alongside whatever else you have a degree in.

Spending several years of training (getting an MD and completing residency) just to have more credibility in your ultimate field of interest seems like a giant waste of time, energy, and money.. Most of the training in medical school will be irrelevant to what you're hoping to do.

If you're committed to pursuing a MD though, I would not mention your lack of interest in patient care during the admissions process. There's no reason to shoot yourself in the foot. Sometimes, wisdom is knowing when to stay quiet.

 

[FigmundFreud]

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[DKMA]

Just curious, would you tell someone interested in pathology or radiology to keep quiet about their interests too? Because patho actually does interest me a lot, and both of those fields are low in patient contact.

I don't think you have to keep it quiet. It just depends on the school or program you are applying to. If you apply to Harvard they'll be like, "Oh cool" then throw money at you. Most med school programs funnel a lot of money into clinical training and may see it as a waste of your time and a waste of their budget to train someone who won't practice. Academic programs with large endowments will likely not have a problem with you not wanting to practice since they tend to be interested in making academic leaders

And path and radiology are different because you need a MD to do that. You can accomplish your goals with a PhD or MPH

 

[Moko]

Just curious, would you tell someone interested in pathology or radiology to keep quiet about their interests too? Because patho actually does interest me a lot, and both of those fields are low in patient contact.

It's one thing to say you're interested in pathology and/or radiology, and another to say that you don't want to see patients.

Adcoms know that many people's interests change during medical school. If that budding pathologist realized halfway through medical school that they hated pathology, what would happen then?

 

[Glandzburg]

It's one thing to say you're interested in pathology and/or radiology, and another to say that you don't want to see patients.

This. Mentioning in an interview that you are not interested in seeing patients will almost certainly get you outright rejected. Mentioning that you are interested in radiology or pathology will not.

 

[FigmundFreud]

This. Mentioning in an interview that you are not interested in seeing patients will almost certainly get you outright rejected. Mentioning that you are interested in radiology or pathology will not.

Okay, I'm specifically asking because I didn't get into a big, research-heavy school (on par with Harvard). I didn't say "screw patients, I never wanna see them," I just focused on my research and not on what little clinical experience I do have when explaining my motivation to go into medicine.

 

[caffeinemia]

Okay, I'm specifically asking because I didn't get into a big, research-heavy school (on par with Harvard). I didn't say "screw patients, I never wanna see them," I just focused on my research and not on what little clinical experience I do have when explaining my motivation to go into medicine.

Confused... so you applied already? are admitted already?

As a physician, I can tell you that many of us will not waste our time on you if you lead with, "I don't care about seeing patients/interacting with patients as individuals." That is the very core of what every practicing physician does. Even pathologist or radiologists know that the wrong diagnosis/read can screw a real person's life. They call patients or physicians to talk about reads. Even when the patients is on the operating table and the pathologist comes to accept the tumor -- they know at least something about the patient's history. Patient centered care is really about moving away from seeing patients as nameless numbers/algorithms. It seems like that is what you are going after -- so whether you will be taken seriously as a policy person with or without an MD may be very important to you, but from the other end -- you will not be taken seriously as a physician if you are all policy and impersonal.

 

[mimelim]

I'm interested in academic medicine, research, global health and public health policy. Seeing patients is a lower priority for me personally. It's a noble job, but it just isn't where my talents lie. The issue is that everyone I've spoken to who knows the field says that even if I want to work in public health, and MD/MPH will always beat an MPH alone. I wasn't a science major as an undergrad, so PhD programs aren't an option either.

There are doctors who spend most of their time on research and who see patients one day a week (my PI for example) and I want to be one of those doctors. My applicant profile is consistent with my goals (non-trad, lots of research, some pretty unusual work experiences, top grades, but less clinical stuff). But are there any schools where I can admit to feeling this way, or do I need to hide that until I get in somewhere?

It would be a mistake to go to an MD program. Translating this and your subsequent posts, albeit lacking on the detail front... "I have this MD PI and I want to be like him, but don't know anything else about this topic". Just because there are physicians out there who have minimal clinical responsibilities doesn't mean that medicine is the right career choice for someone that has little to no interest in clinical medicine.

We see this all the time, it goes like this:
"Why medicine?"
"I like research"
"That's nice, but why apply to medical school?"
"Because I like research and global health and academics."

It comes across as you having really no idea what you are doing or what medical school/medicine is. It makes for a pretty easy rejection to be honest and for good reason.

There are a lot of less patient interaction pathways. There are even some well established non-clinical pathways for MDs that figure out that medicine isn't really their calling. Just because they exist doesn't mean that you should apply to medical school without at least some desire for clinical practice because in reality, that is a) what the vast majority do and b) what medical schools are trying to train.

 

[kumis_or_shubat]

To quote my good friend, Alimzhan, "I am agree." With the above posts, that is! Medicine is a profession where we dedicate our lives to help others in the form of patient care in one form or another. Say, if you really are keen on the MD part, start a PhD in your topic of interest and then test the waters: how are people responding to you? Are you getting the low level of credibility that you anticipated, or is it actually not that bad, and people seem to be "biting"? Don't jump into the MD quite so soon - it's better to start it knowing you want it, rather than starting it on a false pretense (trust me, my parents had the same thought as you, actually!!) and realizing you don't need it or even LIKE it. My $0.02.

 

[lNVlNClBLE]

Was expecting "I want to be a doctor so I can get hot babes"

I am pleasantly surprised.

 

[BphysDoc]

Was expecting "I want to be a doctor so I can get hot babes"

I am pleasantly surprised.

I don't know. Do hot babes like doctors nowadays?

 

[Mr. Poopy Butthole]

I don't know. Do hot babes like doctors nowadays?

Until they see your post-medschool debt.

OOOOHHHHH! SOMEBODY CALL THE BURN UNIT

 

[Glandzburg]

OOOOHHHHH! SOMEBODY CALL THE BURN UNIT

Every post, really? Must you?

 

[Mr. Poopy Butthole]

Every post, really? Must you?

GOTTA STAY IN CHARACTER

 

[Lucca]

Ummmm I think @carpediem22 might be appropriate to tag here. Pretty sure she's going into the global health MD/PhD path and she may have some words of advice. Sorry if I'm wrong Carp!

 

[carpediem22]

@Lucca Yep, that's correct. Specifically I'm doing the PhD in Epidemiology, but with an emphasis on global health. I considered programs in global health (e.g. UW's global health and implementation science program), but at the end of the day I wanted the Epi methods training.

@FigmundFreud, it's unclear to me whether you've already applied and been accepted, but feel free to message me if you have any questions about MD vs. MD/MPH vs. PhD vs. MD/PhD in public global health. Trust me, I've thought through each option in depth. In short, the MD/PhD is for people who want to both practice medicine and conduct advanced public health research. It is an uncommon path, but is becoming more and more popular over time. If you just want to do public health work but not necessarily research, the MPH is sufficient and a PhD would be overkill. For the MD, you need to have a desire to see/treat patients in a clinical setting, beyond just wanting the extra two letters at the end of your name. Personally, I am getting the MD because I truly and deeply care about seeing patients and practicing in low-income populations, both domestically and globally. If you have no interest in seeing patients, then a PhD in Epidemiology or Global Health, or even a Dr.Ph. (which is like a step-up from an MPH), would be more appropriate for you. FWIW, I do think that the MD gives one a bit of extra clout in the world of public health, but not enough to justify getting it if you don't actually want to practice medicine.

Also, you don't have to be a science major to enter a PhD or MD/PhD program in public health. I was not. Perhaps for a basic science you would need to be, but definitely not for public health so long as you have sustained and in-depth research experience. However, I will add that if you intend to apply to straight-PhD programs, they tend to want to see an MPH first. MD/PhD programs are a bit more flexible with this requirement.