BME

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

After doing a 4 year course of undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering, Can you directly pursue masters or specialisation
in any medical field?? e.g Dentistry or General Surgeon.
Or do you have to start medicine all over again?

2

Tldr yes you can do medicine after undergrad BME

The medical education system in the US works like so,

  1. Premed: Obtain an undergraduate degree (really any BA or BS degree) and complete all medical school requirements. This is where you’d do BME.
  2. Medical School: Obtain an MD, DO, or other medical degree (dentistry, optometry, etc) from an actual medical school.
  3. Residency: Kind of like on the job training for doctors. Residency programs vary based on the chosen specialty (a surgical residency is much longer than a general physician’s residency).

Basically you can’t actually “start medicine” until you’ve gotten a bachelor’s degree, so studying BME at Hopkins will not (in that regard at least) impede your desire to become a medical practitioner. It’s important to note that medical schools don’t care about your undergraduate major - premed students major in everything from history and English to BME and biology - so long as you complete the premed course requirements.

The same goes for masters and PhD programs. You can’t actually apply to them until you’ve completed (or are going to complete) an undergraduate program. So if you wanted to do a masters in something biology related, a bachelor’s degree generally in a related field (though idk if that’s a hard requirement).

3

Thx a lot, that was really helpfull.
How long is this masters degree and residency (no.of years wise)?

4

Depends on the program.
Undergraduate usually takes 4 years
Medical school takes about 4 years
Masters degree takes about 2 years
PhD can take 4 or more years (depends on the program, nature of your research, adviser, etc)
Residency programs take anywhere from 3-7 years depending on the specialty. Here’s a breakdown of how long each one would take:
https://residency.wustl.edu/Residencies/Pages/LengthofResidencies.aspx

So your entire medical education would take
4 years (undergraduate) + 4 years (medical school) + 3 years (minimum residency) = 11 years.
If you wanted to be a surgeon it would be more like
4 years (undergraduate + 4 years (medical school) + 5 years (general surgical residency) = 13 years

Or you could go to grad school instead of medical school in which case you’d be looking more at
4 years (undergraduate) + 2 years (masters) = 6 years
or
4 year (undergraduate) + 4 years (PhD) = 8 years
or
4 years (undergraduate) + 2 years (masters) + 4 years (PhD) = 10 years

Some people also choose to do a masters degree before going to medical school, or get a PhD after medical school, which takes still more time.