Postdoctoral research training?

[ReInventor]

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I am a junior undergraduate majoring in psychology. In the past I thought I would pursue a PhD in psychology, but now I am seriously considering medical school (I would have to do post-baccalaureate premedical coursework).

However, I do not want to give up conducting research (I have a good background in psychology research for an undergrad and I love the research process). I have thought about an MD/PhD but it seems like it would be difficult (or even pointless/redundant?) to get a PhD in psychology along with an MD (and I don't really have the science background to even think about anything in the biomedical sciences right now).

I have just learned about the possibility of a research training fellowship during or after residency. I think based on my psychology background and research interests (autism), I see myself specializing in C&A psychiatry (although of course this is not set in stone!).

Are these research training opportunities common? Are they highly competitive? I know NOTHING about them really, but I love the idea of getting research training to supplement my medical training without the long road of an MD/PhD. Is this a viable route (MD followed by research training fellowship during/after residency) if I would like to have a career involving at least some research? Not quite sure if I would want to run my own lab or anything like that, but I don't think I can ever completely give up the intellectual stimulation of research.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

The Ph.D. in an M.D./Ph.D. program is almost exclusively in a hard science, and not in something like Clinical Psychology. I considered this route way back when, though the research matches weren't that great for what I wanted. You may want to check out the M.D./Ph.D. forum (or whatever they are calling it nowadays), as there are a number of active posters who are at different stages in the process. I believe there have been some changes in the how/when the student takes a break for the Ph.D. research work, so you'll definitely want to do more investigation on the topic.

Based on the programs I looked at, there seemed to be a strong push towards specific residencies at highly-ranked academic programs, so it probably isn't a path for someone who doesn't want to be a productive researcher in academic medicine. I'm sure there are exceptions, but it is understandable that after investing a great deal of money in your training, programs would want people to stay in academic medicine.

 

[atsai3]

I am a junior undergraduate majoring in psychology. In the past I thought I would pursue a PhD in psychology, but now I am seriously considering medical school (I would have to do post-baccalaureate premedical coursework).

However, I do not want to give up conducting research (I have a good background in psychology research for an undergrad and I love the research process). I have thought about an MD/PhD but it seems like it would be difficult (or even pointless/redundant?) to get a PhD in psychology along with an MD (and I don't really have the science background to even think about anything in the biomedical sciences right now).

I have just learned about the possibility of a research training fellowship during or after residency. I think based on my psychology background and research interests (autism), I see myself specializing in C&A psychiatry (although of course this is not set in stone!).

Are these research training opportunities common? Are they highly competitive? I know NOTHING about them really, but I love the idea of getting research training to supplement my medical training without the long road of an MD/PhD. Is this a viable route (MD followed by research training fellowship during/after residency) if I would like to have a career involving at least some research? Not quite sure if I would want to run my own lab or anything like that, but I don't think I can ever completely give up the intellectual stimulation of research.

Depending on your field of study, the MD/PhD may not necessarily be a longer road than MD followed by post-MD research fellowship training. Some MD/PhD programs take 7-8 years. Most post-MD research fellowships are 2 years, if not 3. (Typically the length of a post-MD research fellowship is not fixed but rather is determined by whether or not you have successfully obtained K award funding.) Viewed in this light, one potential advantage of the post-MD research fellowship is that, even though it requires approximately the same amount of time investment, you will receive a slightly greater salary (again, depends on the fellowship) as a postdoctoral fellow vs. as a predoctoral fellow.

Another potential advantage is that, because your clinical interests change so much during medical school, your post-MD research will be much more focused compared to the research you complete during your MD/PhD. For example, suppose you enter an MD/PhD program intending to specialize in rheumatology. For your research, you understandably pick a lab working on cellular mechanisms of autoimmune disorders. Then after you complete medical school, you come back to do your third year clerkships and realize that you hate internal medicine and decide to do plastic surgery. Your MD/PhD training will not be useless, because you can easily apply some of your methodological and scientific training to new areas of inquiry, but clearly your dissertation publication in the JCR is not going to impress any plastic surgery residency admissions committees. The same thing could be said of your interest in doing an MD/PhD in psychology. Suppose you complete your PhD, publish some of your dissertation research in JPSP, come back for your 3rd year clerkships, realize you hate psychiatry, and decide to specialize in pathology? (FYI, in my experience, MD/PhD's with a PhD in Psychology are rare.)

In terms of your questions about the other details, post-MD research fellowships are plentiful. Competitiveness varies by program, location, and field of research.

 

[ReInventor]

Thank you for the replies.

So basically, if many years down the road I decide this is for me, an MD followed by a post-doc research fellowship is a viable way to start a career in academic medicine? I do not think I want to do an MD/PhD program.

atsai3: I think your point about med school changing your research interests is VERY applicable to me--I don't think the MD-PhD route is for me because I don't have a research background in hard science, it is all psych. I imagine going to med school with spark some new research interests that I can't even fathom right now. I think being trained in research when I am a bit older and more knowledgeable about medicine would be better for me than trying to apply to an MD/PhD program in the next few years.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I work with some wonderful physician-scientists, and not all of them are MD/Ph.Ds. Admittedly most of them are, though that probably speaks more to selection bias (working at a top research hospital) than it does to the actual prevelance of physicians who also conduct research.