MPH in med school, vs during/after residency?
Started by Cheeezcake
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MPH during medical school is VERY common. So much so that many schools have programs where you do the MPH over two consecutive summers. During residency? Not so much as there is little to no time and programs likely won’t allow you to take a year off. Additionally, after residency makes little sense as you are either losing a year of attending salary or going to school while being a doctor which...why?
In practically, however, unless you are a career changer who got the MPH prior to MED school, there is almost nothing you can do with an MPH that you cannot do simply with an MD.
I’m not 100%, but leaning towards a career in public/global health
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I did my research when applying over the same issue and most people who did a 2 year MPH (before med school) ended up being very happy with it while the 1 year or integrated programs were kind of meh. Positive responses but would be fine without it. The value of an MPH in medicine comes more from being able to take time off from pre-med/medicine to learn to approach health problems from a different perspective as well as become an expert in one aspect population health. The one year MPH or integrated programs don't really facilitate this very well but they're the more "efficient" option. At the very least an MPH can help get you out of the narrow-sighted world of medicine that is so focused on treatment to help emphasize just how important prevention is
One MD/MPH who I talked with recommended getting the MPH later on, after you're already locked into a specialty, so that you can have a better idea of what you actually want to use the MPH *for* (like do you want to concentrate in biostats, global health, policy, etc., and does that fit in well with the specialty you're doing)
