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I thought I'd present this scenario to you guys since many of you have considered or are considering going into biomedical research with both an MD and a PhD degree:
I have completed two years of medical school already with the intention to "try my hand" at a year of dedicated research (something I did not get to do while in college since all of my bench research jobs were part time during the school year and full time during the summers). I did just that last year after being awarded a very generous/prestigious fellowship.
Early into my research year I realized that I would very much like to go into academia and at least have a hint of research in my daily life (I guess, as evidenced by me wanting to go into academia...). As the year progressed, I piled on one success after another... things began to snowball, and I became very interested at this point in undertaking the next logical step for me: to pursue a PhD along with my MD. I never intended to set aside a significant amount of time towards maintaining a lab since my passion is to stay/work in the clinic (perhaps 80% clinic/20% research). I am very interested in translation research...
Nevertheless, I got into the PhD program at my school and as the year progressed I began to doubt many of the reasons why I joined. I know in the US an MD is just as useful as a PhD in performing research (although the training is night and day...), however getting funding for a project is rather difficult if you only have an MD. I suspect if you're an MD with a decent publication track record (say, post-residency, into your fellowship/postdoc phase of your career), the opportunity for funding should be significantly better. Right now I am grapling with the prospect of spending another 3 to 4 years in graduate school to obtain the training I need or if I should just return to medical school and finish as quickly as possible -- go to residency -- pursue a fellowship and then do a three year post-doc somewhere and finish my training (and hopefully get some good publications).
I think you can make a sound arguement one way or the other... but I would like to hear everyone's input about this process...
I have completed two years of medical school already with the intention to "try my hand" at a year of dedicated research (something I did not get to do while in college since all of my bench research jobs were part time during the school year and full time during the summers). I did just that last year after being awarded a very generous/prestigious fellowship.
Early into my research year I realized that I would very much like to go into academia and at least have a hint of research in my daily life (I guess, as evidenced by me wanting to go into academia...). As the year progressed, I piled on one success after another... things began to snowball, and I became very interested at this point in undertaking the next logical step for me: to pursue a PhD along with my MD. I never intended to set aside a significant amount of time towards maintaining a lab since my passion is to stay/work in the clinic (perhaps 80% clinic/20% research). I am very interested in translation research...
Nevertheless, I got into the PhD program at my school and as the year progressed I began to doubt many of the reasons why I joined. I know in the US an MD is just as useful as a PhD in performing research (although the training is night and day...), however getting funding for a project is rather difficult if you only have an MD. I suspect if you're an MD with a decent publication track record (say, post-residency, into your fellowship/postdoc phase of your career), the opportunity for funding should be significantly better. Right now I am grapling with the prospect of spending another 3 to 4 years in graduate school to obtain the training I need or if I should just return to medical school and finish as quickly as possible -- go to residency -- pursue a fellowship and then do a three year post-doc somewhere and finish my training (and hopefully get some good publications).
I think you can make a sound arguement one way or the other... but I would like to hear everyone's input about this process...
