Tulane MD/MPH?

[RL536]

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Hi all --
Does anyone know a lot about the benefits of having an MPH in addition to an MD? Tulane's MD/MPH program looks pretty great, especially considering it's only a 4 year program and has the concentration in health systems administration. But, for the extra tuition, I remain unsure about the career payoff. Thoughts anybody?

 

[virusgirl]

I think it sort of depends on what you envision yourself doing with your medical degree in the future. An MPH will prepare you to impact health on a population or community scale, so if that is something that interests you, it would be something to consider. In my case, I want to do Infectious Disease, and at some point in my career I want to do HIV/AIDS management in South Africa. Education and advocacy are going to be an important part of what I do, so for me, an MPH would be very useful. I really like Tulane's program in particular, because they have a tropical medicine specialty.

But as you said, it is expensive, and time-consuming as well. If you think that you will spend your entire career treating individual patients, that is wonderful and completely fine -- and you won't need an MPH to do it. If you want to treat patients and also work to change local medical infrastructure, an MPH would be appropriate.

 

[RL536]

It would be appropriate, yes, but would it be necessary? In other words, will NOT having an MPH affect/limit my career chocies?
Thanks so much for your feedback!

 

[virusgirl]

I doubt not having an MPH will be a detriment to your career choices, unless you decide to go for a career path that is specifically public health oriented. I'm not expert on this, but I would imagine if you decided to work for your state dept. of health or something like that, an MPH would be much more necessary than if you were a doctor in private practice.