What are the advantages of a combined MD/PhD degree?

Question

What are the advantages of pursuing a combined MD/PhD degree? I have been told that in the end you will have to devote about 70% to either research or clinical work anyways. I am thinking about getting this but I'm not completely sold on the idea...

Answer 1

There are many different types of medical careers, from working in small community healthcare facilities, to working in very large university medical centers.  Most people who become doctors have some small involvement with medical research during their training, but after that, they do not continue to pursue research projects.  

For doctors that continue their career in academic settings (where training of doctors and research is a large part of what they do), research continues to be a component of the job.

Most doctors who do research as part of their job do not have PhD degrees in addition to their medical degree.  The primary advantage of having the academic doctorate involves obtaining and maintaining status at a university.  For doctors who wish to do research at teaching centers that are not university-based, the only advantage of the PhD is that they get a lot of excellent research experience in pursuing and attaining that degree.

I am a doctor who works in a teaching hospital.  I supervise trainees (called residents) who are undergoing specialty training.  I continue to be involved in some small amount of research, but it's not a central component of what I do.  There are several other doctors in my department that do substantially more research than I do.  Only one of them has an MD/PhD.  

I would suggest to consider the MD/PhD program if you have a specific research interest or if you strongly desire to gain not only an education that will lead you to a career in patient care, but you also desire to pursue a track of producing scientific studies.  If you want to do BOTH clinical medicine, taking care of patients, and academic research, and you want to do it at a university medical center, then strongly consider the MD/PhD.

If, on the other hand, you want to gain a broad background in medicine so that you can pursue any number of career tracks which might include research or not... then just go to medical school.  You'll be amply prepared to continue in research if you so choose.  If you find an area of burning interest in medical school and you decide to shift gears into a more laboratory based career, you can always earn the PhD.