Hello all,
I am a freshman in college who decided to go premed and is interested in MD/Phd. I know that it takes 7-8 years to usually finish the degree and everything, but I was just wondering, what graduates go on to after the program? Also, what exactly is academic medicine; is it just research or becoming a professor?
I apologize if this question has been asked before. I am new to the MD/Phd board.
One great thing about having a MD/PhD is the variety of career options. First, academic medicine means that you work at a medical school, so you are some type of a professor or instructor. This means that you have responsibilities that you do not have in private practice, such as teaching/supervising residents and medical students, giving some lectures, and usually participating in some type of research. Not all academic physicians do basic science research or clinical trials or write grants, but most will write journal articles on some aspect of their field. Much of you duties depends on what field of medicine you do.
Other options are private practice, industry (pharmaceutical/biotech company), or government (FDA, etc.).
Although you have these options, the purpose of MD/PhD programs is to train academic physicians who will do translational research (basic science that can be applied to developing new diagnostic/therapeutic tools) or clinical research.
After the MD/PhD program (7-9 years), you apply for a residency/fellowship (3-6 years), then apply for faculty positions. However, you do not have to follow this path - you can do what you want. You don't have to do a residency. You can do a post-doctoral research fellowship and just do basic science (still a professor at a university/med. school). Or, you can never do basic or clinical research and just go into private practice.
You should set up some meetings with professors at your local med school and see what they do.
