<p>For the people who are doing bio/biomedical research, do you think about that? I am not saying changing career or making more money, just purely to enhance our clinical background, and potentially to get positions in both clinical department and basical science department at university. I understand it demonds a lot of efforts, however, what does the future look like? Is it easier to get in med school after graduate school? Any personal experience or the stories from people around you? Welcome to share! Thanks!</p>
<p>Personally, I’m not interested in going that route, but if you are, have you considered doing joint/dual MD/PhD or PharmD/PhD programs? By combining the two degrees, you can often do it faster than doing them separately.</p>
<p>Yes, getting a MD/PhD would make it faster, but those programs are often extremely difficult to get in. While they have thier advantages (ie. getting fully funded to go to med school!), it really is not conducive to getting good training, by that MD/phD students take med classes the first two years and then do their phD research/classes for the next 4-5 years and then return to med school rotations and stuff…often md/phd students will be left behind and feel lost compared to md students as by the time they return to do their med school rotations, they will have forgot the basic med stuff learned in the first two years of med school…So i AM considering getting a MD after getting my pHD and I do think it is easier to get in med school after getting a phD, but I WOULD LIKE to hear others opinions…has anyone took this route before???</p>
<p>A postdoc in my lab did her MD after her PhD. It’s a very long road, and one I don’t recommend unless you actually want to be a physician-scientist. I don’t really think being an MD/PhD is a huge advantage in terms of career options, unless you want to do clinical research and need access to patient samples.</p>
<p>I anticipate doing an MPH while I am a postdoc. Three of the postdocs in my lab did this (admittedly I am in a field where biostats and epi are very valuable).</p>