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Pharm D and MD
Started by vasoolraja
Apply? Maybe for some reason yes. Attain both degrees? Almost certainly not.
Yes and there are people who get both degrees, one right after the other. There are a couple on SDN
I initially thought about submitting both applications until a pharmacist I work with tore into me. Apparently several students in his class dropped from pharmacy school when they got their acceptances to medical school, leaving empty seats where future pharmacists could have sat.
What I took away from it was this: figure out which profession you want to enter and commit to it.
If you want to do one and then the other, good luck and may God have mercy on your poor soul.
I initially thought about submitting both applications until a pharmacist I work with tore into me. Apparently several students in his class dropped from pharmacy school when they got their acceptances to medical school, leaving empty seats where future pharmacists could have sat.
What I took away from it was this: figure out which profession you want to enter and commit to it.
If you want to do one and then the other, good luck and may God have mercy on your poor soul.
I see no problem of obtaining multiple degrees throughout your lifespan. There are a bunch of people who have both Phd and MD, or JD and Phd, and they are not exceptions.
I understand and respect that. I've also indicated in previous threads that I'm just looking forward to working a regular job and being able to spend more quality time with my family, and pursuing further doctoral degrees would be counter-productive in my situation.
Everyone's different. I just think med school after pharmacy school would be rough on a family. Kids want a dad, not a perpetual student, and it's hard for someone to be both.
Everyone's different. I just think med school after pharmacy school would be rough on a family. Kids want a dad, not a perpetual student, and it's hard for someone to be both.
It is almost impossible and impractical to do both the degrees in a life time! What I wanted to know was whether there are people who submit applications to both med schools and pharmacy schools at the same time.
You can definitely do it, and the schools won't know that you're applying to both unless you bring it up. The problem I saw was that the med school application cycle is pretty long compared to the pharmacy cycle. This could lead to you being offered an acceptance to a pharmacy school and then finding out after classes start that you were accepted to a medical school.
I'd look at the AMCAS and PharmCAS sites to see for yourself how the timing works.
I'd look at the AMCAS and PharmCAS sites to see for yourself how the timing works.
I know plenty of friends who did a Pharm.D. AND moved to the M.D.,they loved it and never regretted their decision.
You can do both separately,it's long,yes,but if you only plan to become a Family Physician,you'll still finish at around 32-33(which is the average of every Doc that enters practice.).
I can tell you that practicing Medicine with a Pharm.D. will open you a lot of doors + people that work with you will be confident that you really know what to do.
You can do both separately,it's long,yes,but if you only plan to become a Family Physician,you'll still finish at around 32-33(which is the average of every Doc that enters practice.).
I can tell you that practicing Medicine with a Pharm.D. will open you a lot of doors + people that work with you will be confident that you really know what to do.
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Could you tell us more about what kind of doors it would open? Once you become a practicing physician what sort of good does having a PharmD (except maybe all that extra debt) do for you? Sure, a Pharmd/MD would be even more knowledgable about drugs they are prescribing, but there will still be other PharmDs out there doing that work, after all that's what they are for.
And a PharmD and Family Physician? Seems like a bizzare combination. Please tell us, pre-health sutdent, more specifically about some benefits of this sort of dual degree.
The thing is that after spending at least 4 years in pharmacy school, you then have to spend another 4 years in med school, then 3-7 years doing residency/fellowships. That would be 11-15 years after undergrad and think about the debt you will be in.
PS. There are a few pharmacists on here that have gone the med. school route so it's not impossible just not feasible IMHO.
Submit applications to both Med and Pharm schools maybe but to do both degrees to me seems a waste of time.
Once you graduate ONE person can do only one job/career at any given time.
Not to mention the student loans after 8 yrs in schools (med and Pharm usually have higher tuitions) unless you have a rich rents/ relatives etc paying for you....
Once you graduate ONE person can do only one job/career at any given time.
Not to mention the student loans after 8 yrs in schools (med and Pharm usually have higher tuitions) unless you have a rich rents/ relatives etc paying for you....
Who would want to be a pharmacist over being a doctor? Pharmacy is a subordinate profession which is quickly on the road to being a super-saturated field of mechanical automatons who are there to service other professionals and whose value is based on how fast they can fill prescriptions. Read the tea leaves!! Pharmacy is in a downward spiral. Why some people are still drinking the Kool Aid of the Pharmacy Schools is beyond me!
hi.. i am elizabeth from india.. i am a doing my pharm.D (post baccalaureate) and am in my final year..its when my final year/intership started that realized that i cannot put up with the fact that i would only be a pharmacist and no where near an MD or doctor.. its actually depressing cos even i wanted to be a doctor.. i am 27.. but i was thinking better do wat i desired so much than die unsatisfied.. if u have any idea on good colleges or universities offering Pharm.D to MD admissions in american or european countries or even any part of the world... please do revert..
I'm sorry, but the people who think its total bunk to have a PharmD/MD are smoking drugs which are not legal in the states (unless its salvia dinorum and equivalent in which case its legal in some states).
Studies have shown repeatedly that at the end of the day, the average physician knows very little about drugs, especially when considering drugs outside the scope of his or her practice. Furthermore, when it comes to writing prescriptions, when excluding errors from illegible handwriting, 27% of prescriptions contain an actual safety error. Having a PharmD/MD would certainly cut down on errors as well as improve patient outcomes.
PharmD's are the study of pharmaceutical therapies. MDs are the diagnosticians. It perpetually amazes me that people who learn very little about drugs other than X treats Y maintain the authority to prescribe while the individuals who spend four years (or more) understanding prescriber behavior cannot do the same.
If you can do both PharmD MD, you'll prove to be an asset to the practice of both medicine and pharmacy.
Studies have shown repeatedly that at the end of the day, the average physician knows very little about drugs, especially when considering drugs outside the scope of his or her practice. Furthermore, when it comes to writing prescriptions, when excluding errors from illegible handwriting, 27% of prescriptions contain an actual safety error. Having a PharmD/MD would certainly cut down on errors as well as improve patient outcomes.
PharmD's are the study of pharmaceutical therapies. MDs are the diagnosticians. It perpetually amazes me that people who learn very little about drugs other than X treats Y maintain the authority to prescribe while the individuals who spend four years (or more) understanding prescriber behavior cannot do the same.
If you can do both PharmD MD, you'll prove to be an asset to the practice of both medicine and pharmacy.
Care to cite your sources? (I'm not just trying to pick on you; I'm really curious.)
Not a problem even if you were picking on me. I like people who see something that doesn't pass the smell test and declares it BS. There are quite literally many, many studies out there. Physicians dont know mechanisms, approved uses, adverse events, laws governing use of drugs, drug costs... the list goes on and on. It begs the question, what DO physicians know about drugs? The reality is that physicians receive the opposite of what pharmacy students get. They are told if you diagnose person X with disease Y, you give Z. We are taught if you want to give person X drug Z, they must have Y. In my opinion, the issue becomes the disconnect between pathophys/medicinal biochemistry and drug pharmacology. Of course, being a knowledge question, all the studies are actually surveys mailed to physicians. I don't remember any off the top of my head, but a quick google search revealed on the first page this one which I found hilarious.
Chen DT, Wynia MK, Moloney RM, Alexander GC. "U.S. physician knowledge of the FDA-approved indications and evidence base for commonly prescribed drugs: results of a national survey". Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 2009.
It is not helpful in terms of cited sources, but I have heard 3 unrelated people quote a supposed study done by drug companies (in part to justify drug rep expense). They found that the vast majority of doctors prescribe the same 20 drugs 80% of the time. That is to say, a doctor has his/her list of about 20 drugs that treat most condition that doctor sees and varys very little from it, perhaps due to comfort or knowledge.
Yes, I know someone who applied to medical schools early in the cycle and pharmacy schools pretty late in the cycle and ended up going to pharmacy school (she did not get into any medical school).
She did not intend on doing so, but when she did, she had very few problems since her ECs were pretty flexible, and she was very careful not to let pharmacy schools know of her original interest in medical school.
Perhaps academia, but I imagine MD PhD dual degree would be more desirable.
If you wish to get into a US medical school, you will need to complete the premedical requirements, take the MCAT and apply like everyone else. Some schools may even require that you complete 90 hours of undergraduate credit (for example, all Texas schools except Baylor). You probably won't need to complete another bachelor's degree though. If you go outside the US, there may be some shady Caribbean schools which give you credit for your pharmacy school work, however, if you wish to become a licensed physician in the US, all coursework must be done at accredited medical schools. None of your pharmacy school credits can be used to fulfill medical school coursework requirements. European schools have their own requirements, but I doubt there is any such thing as a PharmD to MD program anywhere.
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