<p>hey im not really sure about the specifics of academic medicine but i want to be a practicing physician who also conducts in depth research (biomedical)...would becoming a professor at a medical school cover these 2 interests or would i have to make a choice between one or the other.</p>
<p>It sounds exactly like academic medicine is what you want.</p>
<p>alright thanx....ill have to research it more....would i need to get a phd as well as an md or just the md?...if you know where i could get more information i would appreciate it</p>
<p>Either a PhD, an MD, or both would be fine for the research component. Both would probably help, but of course it takes longer to get and is not necessary.</p>
<p>In some rare circumstances, other degrees entirely will still be fine for research purposes. A PharmD, for example, in setting up clinical trials.</p>
<p>yea but i still want to practice clinical medicine so i guess the MD is what i would need then...</p>
<p>Yeah - but an MD on its own is sufficient for research. You may find some benefits to being an MD/PhD in your career, but it is of course difficult to gain admission to such programs, and it also takes some time.</p>
<p>this career path is actually really appealing to me. But wouldn't it be difficult to be a practicing physician and a med school professor at the same time?</p>
<p>Not at all. If you've heard of Dr. Sanjay Gupta who does a newsbit on CNN daily, he is exactly that. He teaches, practices, does research, and reports. Pretty crazy to do all that, but you can if you work hard.</p>
<p>Don't forget, of course, that in your third year of med school, you're on clinical rotations anyway. So the people teaching you will be teaching you while they teach patients.</p>
<p>jakem333, it is not difficult to do all this. I research for an MD who practices, teaches medical school courses, and researches, even though he doesn't research TOO much.</p>
<p>arahopee whoever your working for is exactly what i would like to do...is there any information you have for what his path towards medicine was?</p>
<p>Lampark44 I don't know as of now but I can ask for you when I meet with him again.</p>
<p>And by "teach patients" in post 9, I clearly mean "see patients".</p>