Hi I’m a sophomore in high school and I am trying to specify a career in medicine. Heads up, I am a bit naive in this topic, so any help would be appreciated. I am aware that I am young and I have plenty of time to figure this out, but I like to plan ahead. I have loved science all my life (especially medical stuff), so it definitely has to be somewhere in medicine. I am most interested in doing medical research by developing drugs and conducting studies, so my #1 choice right now is becoming a medical scientist. I have heard about a MDPhD program which sounds very cool (but very very hard!), but I am not interested in practicing medicine with patients and such. Another concern with that is would all that money, school, and time be worth it in the long run? Also, I am interested in pharmacology and biochemistry. This sounds super corny, sorry, but I would really love to make a difference in the world by helping people through medicine and this is what I have been dreaming about forever. Does anyone have any suggestions of careers I would be interested in/ would be rewarding? Thank you! :)))
If you really have zero interest in treating patients, then a MD/PhD program is probably not the best career path for you since you will need to spend 2 years in med school exclusively treating patients (clinical training in years 3 &4) followed a medical residency (3 - 7 years) which will also focus on clinical practice.
If you want to focus on hands on laboratory work, then straight PhD is probably the route you want to take. PhD programs usually are about 4-6 years post-undergrad and, in the sciences especially, you will receive funding (full tuition remission plus a living expenses stipend) in return for working as teaching or research assistant during grad school.
You could also consider a PharmD (pharmacy degree) followed by a research fellowship . Although most pharmacists end up in retail service, there are some research opportunities within academic hospital settings/medical schools and at pharmaceutical companies.
It sounds like you may be especially interested in clinical pharmacology which is the application of basic pharmacology principles to human populations.
More about clinical pharmacology–
http://www.ascpt.org/Knowledge-Center/What-is-Clinical-Pharmacology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_pharmacology
You should also read the interviews with clinical pharmacologists offered here which talk about how they got where they are today–
Thank you! That was very helpful!
Agree with WOWMom and can’t stress it enough: If you don’t want to physically take care of patients, you should never enter medical school. Getting an MD grants you the right to see patients in a very particular way and if you don’t want that, then it’s not worth the time, money or effort necessary.
I just noticed you wanted some other career suggestions.
Here they are:
Biostatistics --this requires a MPH, a MS or a PhD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biostatistics
Bioinformatics-- this requires a MS or a PhD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics
Toxicology-- this requires a PharmD, DVM, MD, or PhD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicology
(I work at a research company that does a great deal of toxicological research and runs clinical drug studies for other companies. Our company doesn’t develop/design new drugs, but we do run studies testing their effectiveness and safety, and develop dose-response models, using both animal and human study groups.)
Jobs that don't require an advanced degree:
Medical technologist (also called clinical laboratory scientist)
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_technologist">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_technologist</a>
<a href="http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/28/Clinical_Laboratory_ScientistTechnician">http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/28/Clinical_Laboratory_ScientistTechnician</a>
Nuclear medical technologist
<a href="http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/31/Nuclear_Medicine_Technologist">http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/31/Nuclear_Medicine_Technologist</a>