The AAMC Graduate Education, Research, and Training (GREAT) Group and its MD-PhD Section have developed new informational websites for students considering biomedical science careers.
The websites can be accessed at: www.aamc.org/phd and www.aamc.org/mdphd. The sites are
linked through a Considering a Career in Medical Research hub.
The site is new, so take a look and give them some feedback.
The Stanford School of Medicine has a great nickname for their 5-year masters in Medicine-PhD hybrid program: MOM. The program was spearheaded by Dr. Ben Bares, a great neuroscience researcher and allows basic science oriented students to get some medical training before heading into a research career. This should interest many readers of this blog.
Here’s a link to the article that a relative forwarded to me that’s well worth a read. Here’s an excerpt about the rationale.
There are fewer people now doing MD/PhDs than there were in 1980. “That’s because in the last 30 years, everything—in clinical medicine, as well as in research—has gotten more specialized,” said Barres. “So if you want to train in both, it just keeps taking longer and longer.” The MOM program is not meant to replace the MD/PhD programs, but to provide another path for students who have a clear focus on their research orientation…..
There’s a huge need, not only in the academic world but in the pharmaceutical world, for more scientists who know about disease, said Barres, who noted that the amount of money being spent by pharmaceutical companies on new drug development keeps going up. But the number of new drugs approved by the FDA each year has been going down. “The question is, why? I think our training systems are the problem.”
Link to the MOM program site.
A recession is a great time to be in school because you’re mostly sheltered from the economic downturn. But basic science labs at most institutions still have significant exposure to the stock market collapse. That’s because the endowments fund a great deal of the research at a University–and only the tip top universities can run a research department at a profit. Usually, the grants cover about 85% of a laboratory’s budget and the university hospital or endowment makes up the difference to complete the budget. Unless a researchers currently has 2 active grants, chances are they are relying on the university to subsidize their research–in excess of private and public grants.
(Aside, a nytimes.com blog by a Stephen Quake of Stanford got me started on this topic; he has an interesting discussion about funding a lab in his recent post)
In the downturn, endowments have suffered. Stanford and Harvard (which have been most prominently covered by the media) lost over 20% of their $15+ billion dollar funds. And university hospitals have seen downturns as well (Oregon Health & Science laid off 500 employees because they used to make a 5% profit on hospital procedures announced they were making a measly 1%). While NIH grants might not cover all the research interests, the basic science activities do provide value to the hospital and university in prestige, recruiting, and other ways that benefit medicine-MD/PhDs realize this.
So, what does this mean for you? It means that PIs who are not fully funded by NIH & private grants will be losing resources. It means that total spending on research will be further contract. It means that MD/PhDs may receive additional pressure to see patients to generate revenue. But in the end, it remains a good time to be in school and to receive training with the hope that he economy will be booming 4 years (MD) + 3 years (PhD) + 4 years (residency) = 11 years in the future.
MDPhds.org had a little snafoo that coincided with a busy time for the MD/PhD students who host the site. The hosting issue has been worked out (it was our fault), and we expect to be up 99.9% of the time for the rest of the year. Thanks for those of you who offered support and potential server hosting.
How do you find the right mentor? Your advisor, your big sib, and several others have likely weighed in.
Obviously funding, graduate student training records, and publication records will be among the most important factors to examine. Searching publications is quick, but students should not a PI’s NIH funding record. Because NIH grants come from federal dollars, they are disclosed in a searchable database.
NIH CRISP Database is a simple tool to use when you’re considering labs, departments, or prospective schools. You can search the length of an active grant, and see which projects in the lab have the strongest funding.
Before migrating to mdphds.org, the former intransit.us site had 50,000
visitors from 95 countries in its three years. Â 83.93% of visitors were from
North America.
Some sample inquiries that brought people to this site via various search
engines, aside from specific school names, are as follows:
- how much does an md/phd make
- on being and becoming a physician-scientist
- how long does it take to complete md/phd program
- clinical lab scientist training programs
- best md phd programs
We look forward to addressing some of these questions and having more people
learn from this new site. Â Please donate if at all possible, so we can
continue to maintain this server space.
