PhD thesis and specialty

[wendywellesley]

my question is:

if you are on the MD/PhD track and you want to get into a competitive specialty, does your PhD thesis have to be directly related to the area of medicine you want to go into?

thanks!

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[Gfunk6]

Strictly speaking, no. Your PhD exists primarily to provide you w/ the tools to intelligently design experiments, give you experience w/ (hopefully) a wide range of equipment and protocols, and ask relevant questions which can then be translated into scientific grant applications.

However, this is not reality. A lot of fields would prefer that you have research in their specific area. It will certainly increase your competitiveness. A couple of possible strategies to facilitate this include putting an MD or MD/PhD w/ a basic science lab in your area of choice on your dissertation committee and/or entering a research collaboration w/ said individual.

 

[Jorje286]

Sorry to divert a little bit from the topic of this thread, but can cognitive neuroscience be related to a medical field other than neurology and psychiatry? Thanks in advance.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

Strictly speaking, no. Your PhD exists primarily to provide you w/ the tools to intelligently design experiments, give you experience w/ (hopefully) a wide range of equipment and protocols, and ask relevant questions which can then be translated into scientific grant applications.

However, this is not reality. A lot of fields would prefer that you have research in their specific area. It will certainly increase your competitiveness. A couple of possible strategies to facilitate this include putting an MD or MD/PhD w/ a basic science lab in your area of choice on your dissertation committee and/or entering a research collaboration w/ said individual.

Well said. The first paragraph being what most PhD programs should be emphasizing for the MD/PhD student.

 

[Vader]

I agree with Gfunk6 and will just add:

One of the benefits of doing the first two years of medical school before starting the PhD phase of an MD/PhD program is that you get a glimpse of the broad array of biomedical topics available. From this menu, you can choose to pursue research in a particular medically-related field of interest. Alternatively, one could focus his/her thesis work on a more basic topic (i.e. a protein structure, biochemical reaction, gene expression, etc) that could be applicable to multiple disciplines.

Doing a PhD in one area by no means limits your potential for various medical specialties. Residency programs understand that you haven't done your 3rd-year clerkships and 4th year sub-I's at this point, so you will not have been exposed to the vast array of medical specialties available. The PhD is NOT a "professional" degree in the sense of training you for a specific trade (although it has gotten more like this in recent times)--it is actually intended as a "doctor of philosophy"--the ability to think and reason, and therefore theoretically applicable to a wide range of fields.

My advice would be to find an area of research you are particularly passionate about and pursue it. Besides, it is possible your medical specialty of interest will change over time and through experiences during medical school.

Sorry to divert a little bit from the topic of this thread, but can cognitive neuroscience be related to a medical field other than neurology and psychiatry? Thanks in advance.

Yes, but the farther you stray away, the more of a stretch it becomes. One recent example is a very recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine--on whether modulating serum homocysteine levels by giving folate and B vitamin supplementation will prevent cognitive decline.

 

[Neuronix]

Sorry to divert a little bit from the topic of this thread, but can cognitive neuroscience be related to a medical field other than neurology and psychiatry? Thanks in advance.

You could use fMRI for part or all of a thesis in cognitive neuroscience then go into Radiology. I've seen this around here.

As for the question of the op's, I will agree with what Gfunk said. While it is not required that your research be in your future specialty area, it will make you more competitive for those competitive specialties. One of the things I liked about coming to Penn's program is that you get 6 months of clinics before you start your PhD. This helped me to realize that I would much rather be doing neuroradiology than neurology! Hence, I'm doing a biophysics PhD, and I probably would not be in this lab had I not made this realization.

My program always tries to convince us however that the PhD is for training purposes only and you shouldn't think of it in terms of your future residency. But, I tend to think that this is more true for the traditional MD/PhD specialties. Medicine, pediatrics, and pathology are so broad and not particularly competitive to begin with that it really matters little what your PhD training was in. When you're looking at something like Dermatology or Orthopedics on the other hand, it becomes much more of a stretch to relate your research and makes you less competitive if you did research on say the kidney.

 

[dr.z]

Strictly speaking, no. Your PhD exists primarily to provide you w/ the tools to intelligently design experiments, give you experience w/ (hopefully) a wide range of equipment and protocols, and ask relevant questions which can then be translated into scientific grant applications.

However, this is not reality. A lot of fields would prefer that you have research in their specific area. It will certainly increase your competitiveness. A couple of possible strategies to facilitate this include putting an MD or MD/PhD w/ a basic science lab in your area of choice on your dissertation committee and/or entering a research collaboration w/ said individual.

 

[wendywellesley]

thanks so much for your replies!!