MPH Any Benefit for Matching

[DocLan]

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Hi,

I have been receiving mixed opinions from advisors to whether having an MPH will give you a significant advantage in getting into residency or later on when wanting to do more academic medicine (not necessarily public health orientated). How much do you think someone who has the degree can beneift? Would you say it is comparable to someone who took a year to do research, ect..? Never thought of the MPH until I started applying to a bunch of med schools that had these programs.

 

[eviorr]

My MPH (Health Policy) was brought up by every interviewer last year. I matched in pediatrics/child neurology, and the reaction was different depending on whether I was being interviewed by a peds person or a child neuro person. Pediatricians talked about the need for public health and policy oriented people in the field to do advocacy for children's health, and I felt it was a huge plus on my application. The neuro folks said it was a plus because (1) it gave me some extra formal training in epidemiology and biostatistics, (2) completing two degrees at once (in four years) and getting good marks in both programs showed my academic abilities, (3) the field needed more policy-minded people if we are ever to improve reimbursements and position ourselves to be more competitive.

I'd say if you are really interested in a specific PH field, like global health or policy, it is worth it to study that - the PH classes are a nice break from all of the basic and clinical science classes, and they are usually not that diffcult. If you just want a boost to your matching potential and aren't particularly interested in public health, a degree in biostatistics or epidemiology would be beneficial, but I'm not sure it would help more than having your name on a publication or two.

- Erick

 

[Top Gun]

Hi,

I have been receiving mixed opinions from advisors to whether having an MPH will give you a significant advantage in getting into residency or later on when wanting to do more academic medicine (not necessarily public health orientated). How much do you think someone who has the degree can beneift? Would you say it is comparable to someone who took a year to do research, ect..?

I have an MPH. At the interview I just went to, the program director asked me about it and my experiences with it. So it can be of interest to a program.

 

[mig26x]

I also have an MPH in Epi and in almost all interviews the MPH was a topic of conversation.

 

[Blade28]

Depends on what field you're going into, IMHO. Very different having an MPH in FP/Internal Medicine than Pathology, for example.

 

[DocLan]

That's great to hear. It's also nice to see quite a few people are getting it.

I always thought it would be beneficial no matter what specialty you go into even if you didn't want to do purely a public health related job but really anything relating to academic medicine including fields of surgery, not just family practice/Internal Med. Given that you are in G Surg Blade 28, do you see any value in it for what you do?

 

[Blade28]

That's great to hear. It's also nice to see quite a few people are getting it.

I always thought it would be beneficial no matter what specialty you go into even if you didn't want to do purely a public health related job but really anything relating to academic medicine including fields of surgery, not just family practice/Internal Med. Given that you are in G Surg Blade 28, do you see any value in it for what you do?

For me, personally, no. But some attendings here have it - they're usually the ones more interested in national/global issues such as trauma prevention, surgical infections, etc.

 

[DJ LACTULOSE]

has anyone who's done the NIH ROADMAP training program in Clinical Investigation gone through the match yet? it's the new NIH-sponsored MD/MPH program.

here's the website: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/clinicaltraining/predoc_factsheet.asp

the MPH i have is in Clinical Investigation, not Global Health or anything like that.

it's kind of confusing b/c most other people with the degree are interested in international health not clinical research.

 

[fantasty]

has anyone who's done the NIH ROADMAP training program in Clinical Investigation gone through the match yet? it's the new NIH-sponsored MD/MPH program.

here's the website: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/clinicaltraining/predoc_factsheet.asp

the MPH i have is in Clinical Investigation, not Global Health or anything like that.

it's kind of confusing b/c most other people with the degree are interested in international health not clinical research.

I do not know anyone in those programs yet, but I thought this was interesting if you're going into clinical research (I posted this in another thread):

http://www.lrp.nih.gov/about/lrp-clinical.htm

$35,000 per year for 2 years. Wahoo. Why didn't I know about this until now?

 

[DJ LACTULOSE]

i'm guessing you enroll enroll in this program after residency? i don't think residents have 20 hours per week to put towards research... sounds pretty sweet though.

 

[Blade28]

i'm guessing you enroll enroll in this program after residency? i don't think residents have 20 hours per week to put towards research... sounds pretty sweet though.

20 hours/week? No way. 🙂

 

[RxnMan]

i'm guessing you enroll enroll in this program after residency? i don't think residents have 20 hours per week to put towards research... sounds pretty sweet though.

I believe the loan repayment programs are meant to fit (clinical) research and admin fellows. Maybe junior faculty.