what are YOU doing with your MPH?

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Adcadet

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I'm curious what my fellow SDNers have done/are doing/will do with your MPH/MPH-in-progress, and I'm sure some of the people here contemplating an MPH would like to hear as well. I'll go first, since I'm passing a kidney stone and need the distraction.

During my MPH years I did translational research in rats with a drug that was just entering a Phase I clinical trial. I basically got to run clinical trials in rats. I also did a retrospective chart review in the medical specialty clinic ran by my PI. I was seriously considering doing a PhD in pharmacology either during or after medical school. My MPH years were definitely slanted towards basic and translational research as opposed to large population studies. I'm not sure if I regret that or not. I wished I had gotten more experience working with large datasets, but I did manage to get that later...

In medical school (mostly in years 1 and 2) I worked on a clinical epidemiology project, analyzing a prospectively collected observational database. Lots of descriptive epidemiology along with a fair amount of analytical epi. Also some scale validation and lots of thought and work figuring out how to quantify both the main exposures of interest along with the outcomes of interest. I decided against a PhD since I decided I wanted to keep my research more clinical and less basic. I also testified before a county commissioners meeting in favor of a public health ordinance under consideration (and passed!) that was related to my research conducted before medical school.

I'm set on going into internal medicine, and am currently thinking about pulm/critical care or cardiology, although I guess I haven't rulled out heme/onc or nephrology. I'm considering applying for "fast track" programs (2 years IM, 2 years specialty training, 2-3 years research instead of 3+3 years) as a way of getting some more research training, and the idea of getting a PhD has crept in again (though not in a basic science, probably in epi). I want to continue doing clinical epidemiology. Running clinical trials seems like fun, but perhaps not a cerebral as running more messy types of studies. I really seem to enjoy figuring out how to quantify hard to measure things. I also really like applying biostats to clinical medicine, and forsee myself teaching evidence-based medicine as much as I can. So far I have little interest in doing the typical large population studies, partly out of (in)convenience. So definitely a very academic career for me.

Anybody else?

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Medical school. Thinking about psychiatry and neurology at the moment. Too early to tell, though. Also contemplating a PhD in a clinical research area.
 
I used my administration & policy emphasis MPH to do administrative work for specialty societies/medically-related non-profits. I also have had a variety of health education projects/jobs.
 
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My plans aren't much different than Adcadet - definitely academics, and majority of research will be clinical epidemiology. I'd like to land a joint appt with an epi dept and a clinical dept so I could teach both medical and public health students.

I hope to do some population based studies, but hopefully this will come through collaboration with other investigators. I'm leaning toward rheum and ID clinically, and I think there is a lot of room for rheum epidemiology. I haven't ruled out preventive medicine as a discipline, but I'm still unsure of how to best make that work and still see patients (outside of occupational medicine, which I don't think I'd want to do).

Clinical trial work is certainly something I'm interested in too, but it can be just as painful as lab work. But, if you're at an institition that is committed to building a clinical trial infrastructure (with fulltime staff to help with stats, budgeting, recruitment, nursing & clinical staff), it makes it a lot easier.

As for other public health aspects I'd like to maintain - I doubt I'll ever study this, but I think keeping up with health behavior theory would be really beneficial.
 
DrMom said:
I used my administration & policy emphasis MPH to do administrative work for specialty societies/medically-related non-profits. I also have had a variety of health education projects/jobs.

:thumbup:
 
I have my plans for MPH in International Health, but I am very much inclined towards PhD in Pharmacolgy. Maybe i'll end up doing both, just for the kicks!@
 
Do many doctors that are NOT in IM/Peds/FP do much public health-related research? Clinically, I'm more interested in interventions rather than analyzing risk factors of chronic disease. I envision myself as a doc doing something procedure-oriented like surgery or interventional like radonc or medonc. I wanted to do a MPH or PhD in order to learn the skills set to conduct good research. I'm also more interested in research that is more translational/basic science than clinical.

Would an epi degree/MPH be useful for a future surgeon or radiation oncologist conducting translational research? For a career like this, am I better off doing basic science research instead of public health?

Adcadet, sorry to hear about your stone. The anticipation must be brutal.
 
A lot of times epidemiology is thought of as just what happens before the disease (risk factors). But, clinical epidemiology certainly includes prognosis and treatment factors, as well as diagnostics.

There's no reason you can't get an MPH in those fields, especially if you want it in epi or biostats (or we have a clinical investigation MPH track). I know a trauma surgeon, an OB-gyn, an anesthesiologist, and several pulmonary intensive care docs who have an MPH.

Even ER has a lot of potential if you want clinical research (below is a link to someone's response to me in the ER forum):
http://drslounge.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=3476876&postcount=56

As for your application, however, I hear (mostly on SDN so take it with a grain of salt) that Rad Onc likes you to have some basic science research. But, my bias is that I'd rather opt to do the type of research that interests me. Obviously, there are a lot of opportunities for clinical/translational research in the fields you listed, as long as you can find a good mentor.
 
what are the chances of a person who does an mph to get into medical school after completing the mph.... also whats the avg age of people who do mph's
 
ValidPoint said:
what are the chances of a person who does an mph to get into medical school after completing the mph.... also whats the avg age of people who do mph's


I was told that if all else were equal between 2 candidates except that one had an MPH, the MPH app would get in, but that an MPH is not going to necessarily get you into med school in and of itself.

I'm sure avg ages vary a lot from school ot school. At the campus I attended, I'd estimate that the avg age of MPH students was in the mid-30s. Almost everyone had been employed in some kind of healthcare field for a number of years. Of course, the program I was at was designed for students like that, so it isn't surprising that that is what the students were like.
 
Working as a health inspector/health educator/all-around health person on staff for a small (but rapidly growing!) town. Very interesting work, extremely busy. No two days are alike, just as my professors promised! Applying to med school for next year.
 
Adcadet said:
I'm curious what my fellow SDNers have done/are doing/will do with your MPH/MPH-in-progress, and I'm sure some of the people here contemplating an MPH would like to hear as well. I'll go first, since I'm passing a kidney stone and need the distraction.

Hope things "passed" uneventfully.


Wook
 
TheMightyAngus said:
Do many doctors that are NOT in IM/Peds/FP do much public health-related research? Clinically, I'm more interested in interventions rather than analyzing risk factors of chronic disease. I envision myself as a doc doing something procedure-oriented like surgery or interventional like radonc or medonc. I wanted to do a MPH or PhD in order to learn the skills set to conduct good research. I'm also more interested in research that is more translational/basic science than clinical.

Would an epi degree/MPH be useful for a future surgeon or radiation oncologist conducting translational research? For a career like this, am I better off doing basic science research instead of public health?

Adcadet, sorry to hear about your stone. The anticipation must be brutal.

Yes, I know a surgeon during epi type retrospective studies on lap. hernia repairs
 
i'm having a great time as a research assistant on a project looking at MRSA colonization in the VA Nursing Home population. We spent all of November and December getting nose and wound swabs on every nursing home resident once a week. Right now we are analyzing the data and preparing to expand our study to several different nursing homes. I love it. I'm learning so much epi and I get a look at the clinical perspective too. I am applying to medical school this year. I feel like my MPH has given me a pretty good perspective on health care, public health and medicine.
 
God I hate how I'm about to sound, please bear with my ignorance. I'm a premed in the midst of applying to medical school. I just recently started considering getting an MPH. Not really sure why because I don't really envision myself doing a whole lot of research, but maybe. I'm just very interested in public and international health. I'm taking this summer to explore what those fields are really about and if I like it enough to pursue it.

My questions are: Is the most common sequence MPH then MD, or do you know of people who did it the other way around? Is it possible to do both simultaneously like an MD/PhD (without killing yourself)? Would it even be worth it to get a MPH along with my MD if I won't be heavily into research and more likey would use it towards approaching international health problems? And lastly, for now, do you know of any good opportunities available to undergrads to get a feel for public health? So far I've been looking up any internships my local shools might have, no luck yet ... Thanks!
 
mychelle774 said:
God I hate how I'm about to sound, please bear with my ignorance. I'm a premed in the midst of applying to medical school. I just recently started considering getting an MPH. Not really sure why because I don't really envision myself doing a whole lot of research, but maybe. I'm just very interested in public and international health. I'm taking this summer to explore what those fields are really about and if I like it enough to pursue it.

My questions are: Is the most common sequence MPH then MD, or do you know of people who did it the other way around? Is it possible to do both simultaneously like an MD/PhD (without killing yourself)? Would it even be worth it to get a MPH along with my MD if I won't be heavily into research and more likey would use it towards approaching international health problems? And lastly, for now, do you know of any good opportunities available to undergrads to get a feel for public health? So far I've been looking up any internships my local shools might have, no luck yet ... Thanks!

See post above about the general impression an MPH will have on a med school admissions committee. In an n=1 non-random sample I can tell you the adcom member I spoke with at my institution is extremely underwhelmed by applications that attempt to add an MPH to make up for poor undergraduate work.

Getting an MPH with at least some clinical experience is helpful since it makes the jargon easier to understand. Some classes will say this outright in their course description. Doing so as a combined MD/MPH is fairly common and a lot of schools offer this. You generally need to be accepted to both programs independently. The MD/MPH will add one year generally and you will end up spending all your summers getting the degree to accomplish it in one year.

Also keep in mind an MPH isn't cheap. It can cost as much as $48,000 just for tuition before you add in fees, books, supplies and living expenses/opportunity costs.
 
Thanks Bobblehead. I wasn't looking to use an MPH to up my chances for med school. I was just toying with the idea and figuring out if it was doable/worthwhile. One year doesn't sound bad, but I wanna keep any breaks I get in med school and 50 grand, yikes. It's good to know that some schools have a combined program. From what I could gather, I don't think any my state's school do. All in all I think I'll continue to dabble and if my passion really gets a grip on me, I can do it after I get my MD.
 
mychelle774 said:
Thanks Bobblehead. I wasn't looking to use an MPH to up my chances for med school. I was just toying with the idea and figuring out if it was doable/worthwhile. One year doesn't sound bad, but I wanna keep any breaks I get in med school and 50 grand, yikes. It's good to know that some schools have a combined program. From what I could gather, I don't think any my state's school do. All in all I think I'll continue to dabble and if my passion really gets a grip on me, I can do it after I get my MD.

The best time to get an MPH is later in your training when you can get someone else to pay for at least part of it, if not all of it.
 
MPH in Epi/Biostats before starting med school.

Doing clinical Epi work at Wills Eye Hospital looking at trends for Penetrating Keratoplastys (fancy word for Corneal Transplants) over a 5-year period. Having a MPH DEFINITELY helped me get this gig.

International Surgical Eye Mission to South India (July '05), summer b/w 1st and 2nd year of med school.

I plan on going into Ophthalmology...;)
 
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