What do MD/MS candidates end up doing for their careers?

[love2connect321]

Hi, naive question here, apologize in advance
What is the difference between MD/MS and MD/PHD? As in, why would one choose one over the other? Minus the time difference?

Do MD/MS candidates choose careers in some part time research as well as taking on patients?

No need to answer in specifics or details, I feel that would be too much to ask for

Thank you

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[eteshoe]

This is quite a broad question so I'll give a brief explanation. DM me if you have more specific questions.

There's a few things to consider w/ MD/MS mainly the type of masters degree. For example, a MS in informatics may help someone who wants a career improving how health care systems utilize big data to help patient outcomes. A MS in epidemiology may help someone who wants a more hands on experience designing clinical trials. An MD/MBA may want to help craft the structures of hospital systems that most affect the physician providers. The list goes on and on.

Typically the MD/PhD path is for those individuals that want research to be a significant portion of their career (e.g. the mythical "80% research, 20% clinical" split). The PhD training allows them to ask deeper research questions and the MD aids in translating those questions into clinically relevant avenues such as developing small molecules, novel immunotherapeutics, devices, etc. that can have near-term or long-term affects for the patient population that interests them the most.

As far as time. MD/MS: 4-6 yrs (depending on the MS); MD/PhD: 8-10 yrs (a lot of these programs can be fully funded such as MSTPs)