MPH or MHA instead of MD or DO?

[locoindio]

so im a non-trad thats looking to go into the health sciences. right now i am on the pre-medical route, , but im looking into possibly pursuing an MPH or an MHA instead. i was wondering if someone on this forum could tell me something about what it is that MHA's and MPH's do exactly, what they make on avg, etc.........the logistics......I've shadowed a few doctors, tutoring/mentoring, and I currently volunteer at an HIV/AIDS hospice to gain experience......but I just wanted to know what sort of feedback I could get.....respond when you can....

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[Chuckwalla]

There is plenty on the internet about this so be sure to do your own research but I will tell you what I have found. They don't make much ($40,000 ballpark) and there are not many jobs looking for these degrees. Not to mention people with MDs get these degrees so if you go up against a MD with the degree you have you are done. The med schools I have seen will let you get these degrees along with a medical degree for the price of a MD.

 

[polycon7]

Hey there,
I'm currently in an MPH program and actually you do make a pretty good living depending on who you work for. There are many many people who have an MPH and not an MD who do great research, work for universities, and get paid. If you're a biostatistician you're a hot commodity because no one really wants to do the statistics for research and papers They also have Ph.D. programs for public health as well but you dont need it to do research. From my understanding (at least at my school), a good job placement depends on what research you have done in graduate school and who you work on board with at your university. You can even stay on and do research with the school and such. Just depends on what you want to do. It's not true that when you are up against physicians, you are out of luck because researchers are needed. BTW, people in public health do research, promote health in communities, start health promotion programs, work for the organizations like the CDC and WHO. THings like that. Hope this helps.

 

[LizzyM]

Public Health has five core areas and non-physicians can and do work in all five: biostatistics, behavioral science, environmental health, epidemiology, and management.

Here's an example:
A community leader calls the local department of health (the leader of which is a MPH but not an MD) and asks to have an investigation made into the high number of cancer deaths in a particular town. Alternately, routine surveillence of death certificiates (done by a biostatistician and epidemiologist) notes that the death rate from specific cancers is higher in a particularly jurisdiction than would be expected given state or national death rates from that cause. Environmental health specialists look into the "cancer cluster" looking for environmental factors that may be causing cancer (they may also investigate asthma, lead poisoning, occupational hazards, or even auto injuries) Here they determine that the death rate is higher but that the incidence of newly diagnosed cases of cancer is no different than in other parts of the state. In this case, people in this community are being diagnosed at a later stage when it is more difficult to cure. Those in public health management (that leader of the local health department in cooperation with others) step in to assure that early detection and treatment facilities are available to the population, particularly those with limited access to health care and behavioral scientists in public health plan and conduct multi-media campaigns to inform the population that early detection saves lives and to motivate those at high risk to seek care. The behavioral scientists may also establish health education campaigns to help people to adopt better health behaviors in order to reduce the risk of cancer. The behavioralists know which behaviors to target based on work done by epidemiologists who determine the risk factors associated with given diseases and conditions.

 

[Law2Doc]

so im a non-trad thats looking to go into the health sciences. right now i am on the pre-medical route, , but im looking into possibly pursuing an MPH or an MHA instead. i was wondering if someone on this forum could tell me something about what it is that MHA's and MPH's do exactly, what they make on avg, etc.........the logistics......I've shadowed a few doctors, tutoring/mentoring, and I currently volunteer at an HIV/AIDS hospice to gain experience......but I just wanted to know what sort of feedback I could get.....respond when you can....

We aren't talking about the same kind of health role usually. In general, you should probably only go into medicine (MD/DO) if you want to take care of patients -- there are paths of less resistance if you want to be a public health wonk or scientist. In med school it will be pretty much assumed that taking care of patients is the real reason you are there, and every med school caters to this by working substantial clinical exposure into its early years to keep you interested, and exclusive clinical focus into its later years. It is a care giving service industry, and the focus is on individuals. Public health deals with populations. I can see doing both degrees, but to choose one versus the other is somewhat like asking us if you should choose an apple or an orange, IMHO. As for "what they make" this isn't a particularly good way to decide what you are going to do for the rest of your life, but suffice it to say that medicine is a harder, longer road, but the upside is higher.

 

[HumbleMD]

I've always thought of an MPH as an add-on degree to a PhD. or an M.D.

 

[LizzyM]

The MPH is a professional degree for public health practioners. Some physicians, dentists and vets earn an MPH to expand beyond the practice of individual clinical care to population based efforts at improving the health of communities. Some earn the MPH on the way to earning a PhD in public health (research focused degree) or Dr.PH (the more practice based public health doctoral degree). Others earn the MPH degree alone and work as data analysts, clinic managers, directors of public health departments, etc.

 

[czanetti]

You can get you medical degree (MD/DO) and go into preventive medicine where it's more concentraited on health policy rather than patient care you develop programs to serve the community and because you have the medical knowlege usually you are in the position to run the show. Look up preventive medicine see for yourself.

 

[beetlerum]

We aren't talking about the same kind of health role usually. In general, you should probably only go into medicine (MD/DO) if you want to take care of patients -- there are paths of less resistance if you want to be a public health wonk or scientist. In med school it will be pretty much assumed that taking care of patients is the real reason you are there, and every med school caters to this by working substantial clinical exposure into its early years to keep you interested, and exclusive clinical focus into its later years. It is a care giving service industry, and the focus is on individuals. Public health deals with populations. I can see doing both degrees, but to choose one versus the other is somewhat like asking us if you should choose an apple or an orange, IMHO. As for "what they make" this isn't a particularly good way to decide what you are going to do for the rest of your life, but suffice it to say that medicine is a harder, longer road, but the upside is higher.

But for a lot of public jobs an MD will stil be more marketable. It's not necessarily the case that because you don't want to take care of patients, you should do an MPH instead.

By the way, I think you know it's an exaggeration to say that "every" med school has substantial clinical exposure in the early years and clinical care as the exclusive focus on later years. But whatever.