PharmD/MPH career options

[Sustiva]

Hey,
I was wondering what kind of careers in epidemiology and public health that would utilize this combination. I was thinking this might be beneficial in antimicrobial surveillance in hospital epidemiology, any thoughts? thanks.. 🙂

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[fantasty]

I'm sure there are a lot of options. Certainly hospital epi would be a start. Also within epi, I've taken two classes (pharmacoepidemiology and outcomes research) that are heavy on the pharm. We are several faculty who have appts in both epidemiology and the pharm school.

Outside of epidemiology, there would be plenty of other options. Some do research on cost of pharm treatments, or health services research, or patient behavior related to medication use. I didn't realize this until I started meeting folks in the pharm school, but they learn a lot more about health behavior, health education, and counseling than we did in med school. And, you could definitely focus on these areas within an MPH program.

Edit: Oh yeah. An obvious option would be clinical trials, too. Some MPH programs have tracks within epi or biostatistics about clinical investigation. But, all new medications need to be conducted by people who really know their stuff when it comes to drug trials.

 

[fantasty]

What the hell... I might as well plug my school while I'm at it. Here's a description of our schools PharmD/MPH program:
https://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/mph/about/combined_degrees/pharmd_mph.html

 

[Sustiva]

awesome. thanks so much for the information. I have heard of Pharm.Ds conducting pharmacokinetic and clinical trials for different INDs. The one issue is that you need a co-PI who is an MD to make "medical decisions" regarding the patient. My big life goal is after I finish my PharmD and MPH, I want to do a residency and and potentially a fellowship in ID pharmacy...

 

[Caverject]

Once I get my PharmD, I would like to get my MPH in Community and Behavioral Health. I expect to have started work on that degree within 5 years of getting out of school if not sooner.

 

[OSURxgirl]

Nice to see other pharmacy students interested in MPH like myself. I am a PharmD student hoping to apply to the MPH program (OSU just started a PharmD/MPH joint program) next fall. I want to specialize in Health Services Management & Policy. I then hope to do a Pharmacy Practice residency, followed by a Psychiatric Pharmacy specialty residency. My dream job would include an academic/clinical position where I could practice, teach, manage, and do research.