MD/PhD Combined Degree

Our Philosophy

The MD/PhD Combined Degree Program at Boston University School of Medicine is structured to train physician-scientists for productive careers in the twenty-first century. Our philosophy views the clinical encounter as central in the generation of relevant questions that can be best explored by scientific methodology. Therefore, we place premiums on balancing both the clinical training and scientific training. This produces a physician-scientist with the capacity to derive a clinically relevant question, explore it in the laboratory or clinical research center, and translate the new knowledge gained into pragmatic clinical practice.

Our Approach

We provide opportunities for integrated basic and clinical training at each point in the MD/PhD Combined Degree Program. Students in the pre-clinical basic sciences attend specially tailored classes that challenge them to design research programs based on clinical cases. Students in the graduate years shadow working physician-scientists to learn how to integrate laboratory and clinical work with research interests. Students in their clinical years participate in seminars on translational research and clinical trial design.

Our Goal

A physician-scientist is a leader who forms the link between basic biomedical science and clinical practice. We strive to nurture, as well as mold these leaders who will build an integrated community between what often are disparate cultures of basic biomedical research and clinical practice.

Throughout this experience, students in the program attend scientific and social events designed to foster these leadership skills with other MD/PhD students and broadly throughout the community of biomedicine.

Program Overview

The physician-scientist is a leader who forms the link between basic biomedical science and clinical practice. In our efforts to both nurture and mold our students to achieve this goal, we focus on providing a flourishing environment through our expertise in training, mentoring and advising, and fostering community.

Training

We strive to achieve continuity of physician-scientist training throughout the student’s training, as highlighted below.

  1. Medical School Years 1 & 2 (BUSM I & II): The integrated problems course has special MD/PhD sections. Students critique the same cases as the MD students, but MD/PhD students are able to enhance this experience by learning the format for designing experiments and writing grants. Students learn to take a clinical case, present the essential clinical material (chief complaint, history and physical, basic lab values, tests, etc.), present it cogently, then develop a translational research question from the clinical question. This enables one to learn the basic elements of a research plan, including the rationale, hypotheses, aims, the dependent and independent variables, positive and negative controls, and power analyses. Year 2 is similar to Year 1, except that students now go from a concept to the clinical trial phase. The goal is to train our physician-scientists to design experiments and write grant applications.
  2. Laboratory Rotations (Summer Pre-BUSM I or, Post-BUSM I): Students complete a required 8–10 week lab rotation before formally entering the research years of study. Students receive a $4,000 stipend for this effort.
  3. Research Years: When students first enter the research (graduate) phase, they quickly assimilate in their chosen program of study as well as continue along the path of becoming a physician-scientist through a wide variety of opportunities during this period.
    1. Teaching: In academic medicine, the role of a physician-scientist typically includes teaching. Teaching opportunities exist in a number of ways. Many MD/PhD students serve as teaching assistants in first- and second-year medical school courses, as tutors, and as instructors of undergraduate Biomedical Laboratory and Clinical Sciences courses. Students are also encouraged to present their research at seminars, student retreats, Student Achievement Day, and at a wide variety of scientific meetings. In addition, efforts are currently under way in the design of a course focused on teaching. Students will be taught techniques for teaching, and then have the opportunity to practice these techniques presenting to small groups of students.
    2. Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship: Transitions understandably may provoke particular concerns, and the program strives to make the student’s transition back to clinical medicine to as smooth as possible. During the last year of graduate training, students are given the opportunity to shadow a physician-scientist one afternoon per week, providing a reacquaintance with patient interactions. After spending an extended period of time in the research arena, students are able to gain valuable experience in taking histories and performing physicals. Most importantly, students gain experience in interacting with patients. At the end of this session, we offer a six-session course that explicitly reviews how to perform the physical exam in internal medicine (with a focus on cardiology and pulmonary), neurology, pediatrics and OB/Gyn. Explicit training on skills relevant to conducting rounds with attendings is also provided, along with an assessment exam.
    3. Clinical Years: In the fourth year of medical school (BUSM IV), a one-month course designed to train students in clinical trials is offered to help prepare students for a future in clinical research.

Mentoring and Advising

A strength of our large program is breadth of mentoring and advising by physician-scientists. There are currently three faculty advisors to the program: Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology, who specializes in neurodegenerative diseases; Stephanie Lee, MD, PhD, Chief of Endocrinology and specializing in thyroid diseases; and Peter Bergethon, MD, Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, specializing in mechanisms of cognition. The advisors function as a resource to meet with students and guide them through the program. The advisors also supervise mentoring and didactic training occurring throughout the program. Some of these events include:

  1. Monday Evening Seminars: These seminars meet every other week and contribute to the continuity of physician-scientist training that occurs throughout the program. These seminars alternate between several cycles that include:
    1. Role Models: Successful physician-scientists meet with students to discuss how they arrived at their career and how they carry out their career.
    2. Panel Discussions: Senior students present their perspective on key issues for junior MD/PhD students, including advice on coping with the work load in BUSM I and II, choosing laboratories, choosing clinical rotations, and applying for residencies and fellowships.
    3. Research Presentations: Students from each phase of the program present their research including those just starting (who present research plans), those doing graduate work (research in progress), and those doing clinical work (completed research).
    4. Happy Hour: This provides a venue just to kick back and socialize.
  2. Retreat: A student-planned initiative, MD/PhD students from each level of training attend. Students interact and learn from their colleagues in all years to help one develop a broad range of friends. The second day of the retreat usually features an optional outdoor experience; i.e., last year, the students went rafting.
  3. Student–Advisor Group Meetings: In an effort to continually improve and address the needs of our students, once a month advisors and administrators meet with student representatives to learn about current and evolving issues—what works, what doesn’t work, what can be improved, and any unexpected events.

Community

The large size of the program provides huge advantages to MD/PhD students. Students often comment that they appreciate the camaraderie afforded from this program size. Some of the ways students formally get involved with many aspects of the program include:

  1. Student Government: The program is sufficiently large that the MD/PhD students organize their own student government that manages social activities, speakers, communications, and interaction with the administration:
  2. Class Officers and Student Representatives: Students participate as elected representatives on the MD/PhD Working Group, MD/PhD Admissions Committee; the MD/PhD Executive Committee, and the GMS Steering Committee.
  3. Monday Evening Seminar Series: As mentioned above, this occurs twice a month. Because the program is so large we almost always have 30–40 students at each gathering, and we provide dinner as an added incentive to come!
  4. Retreat: As mentioned, the retreat allows incoming students a chance to meet their classmates and other students in the program. Group interaction is further enhanced during the optional outing on the second day of the retreat where everyone goes and participates in a group outing.
  5. Student Achievement Day: Each spring, students are able to present their research through their participation in this student-centered event whether they present a poster or are selected to give a talk and meet one-on-one with the keynote speaker.

Curriculum Sequence

Detailed Chronological Description of Studies for MD/PhD Students

A. Summer before BUSM I

Before beginning your first year of medical school, you can begin your research by doing an 8–10 week rotation in a laboratory. This work may be used to fulfill the MD/PhD Program laboratory rotation requirement. It also provides one with an opportunity to become acquainted with the campus and colleagues before beginning the first year of medical school. Choosing a lab for this and later rotations may be facilitated by the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences Office. In planning this rotation, please keep in mind that the BUSM I orientation and curriculum begin in mid-August. All students completing a summer rotation may earn a summer stipend for living expenses.

B. BUSM I (Med Year I)

BUSM I is the same for both MD and MD/PhD students with the exception of the Integrated Problems (IP) course. The MD/PhD students take this class together. While the format is the same as for MD students, this section is generally led by a scientist or physician-scientist, allowing for discussions to get more in- depth concerning the science behind medicine.

During BUSM years I and II, MD/PhD students have the opportunity to take the Integrated Problems (IP) course in a 4-semester progression, the first two semesters in BUSM II as follows:

Semester I: Essentially follows the IP format, but uses cases that focus attention on the scientific aspects of the case. Students report back on what is known. Emphasis is on using existing literature to develop an understanding of medical issues in each case.

Semester II: ‘Bedside to Bench’ More cases are presented, but the focus now shifts to go beyond what is known. Students are asked to take their thinking beyond current literature, developing reasonable bench questions that could shed light on the medical cases.

C. Summer between BUSM I and BUSM II (Med Year I and II)

MD/PhD students should begin looking for labs to rotate in for this summer during the winter/spring of BUSM I. A good starting point, is to consult the Faculty Research Interests, a document published each year by the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences that lists faculty with on-going research. Funded faculty are generally eager to have MD/PhD students in their labs, and are easily approachable by phone or email. While many students decide quickly which investigator they will work with, other students may need to do an additional rotation. Students completing an 8–10 week rotation during this period earn a stipend.

D. BUSM II (Med Year 2)

BUSM II is also the same for both MD and MD/PhD students with the exception of the continued Integrated Problems course, in which the student will also write a mock research grant proposal.

  1. Students continue to take the MD/PhD IP course sequence as follows:
  2. Semester III (first semester of BUSM II) ‘Bench to Bedside’: Rather than cases, this semester’s problems begin with basic science observations, asking students to think divergently about how this observation applies to medical science. Similar to Semester II, the emphasis is on creative and logical thinking. Semester IV (second semester of BUSM II): The goal in this semester is to develop skills in finding fundable questions/studies, based upon a clinical or basic problem.
  3. Upon completing two years of medical school, students are required to take step 1 of the National Board Examination. The Board Examination must be taken by July 1 and before starting a summer research rotation. We have found that it is problematic if this is left until ‘after’ completing one’s PhD studies. By completing the board exam upon completion of year 2 of medical school, you will be assured to find that the information learned will be fresher in your mind.

E. Graduate/Research Phase

  1. Medical School Credit: Students will follow the requirements of the particular department. Since MD/PhD students are considered “post-master’s” students after completing the first two years of medical school, advanced standing for medical school coursework is granted, but varies by department.
  2. Departmental Requirements: Outside of the thesis research, each department has curriculum requirements including courses and qualifying exams. These vary among departments.
  3. Qualifying Exams: Try to initiate the qualifying examination process as soon as possible! The format of the qualifiers differs from one department to the next, so look into the requirements and possible exam dates as early as possible. Generally, MD/PhD students take their qualifying examination after completing their first year of graduate study. So, in some cases, this may effect which classes you register for in your first year of graduate studies. The sooner you pass your qualifying examination, the sooner you’ll be able to form your dissertation committee.
  4. Dissertation Committee: Your dissertation committee is formed after you have passed your qualifying exams. The professors on your committee are selected based on their expertise. The dissertation committee is there to help guide you and your project in the right direction, and therefore aid you in the timely completion of your dissertation research.
  5. Identifying and utilizing clinical experiences during graduate school: Students are encouraged to take an elective Clinical-Scientist Clerkship (GMS MD 800) for MD/PhD students who are within 1.5 years of completing their PhD training. This clinical-scientist clerkship opportunity is available with a duration of a cumulative clinical time of 4 weeks.

The Clinical-Scientist Clerkship (GMS MD 800) was designed with the goal of helping students develop some clinical skills as well as provide them with real-life exposure to the world of the clinician-scientist. Following are the details of the Clinical-Scientist Clerkship:

  1. It will be supervised by a physician-scientist who holds a faculty appointment at BUMC.
  2. It will be open to all MD/PhD students who: a) have completed BUSM Years I and II, and USMLE Part 1; and b) are in the post-qualifier years of their PhD
  3. At present, this is recommended as an elective.
  4. The clerkship will be an ambulatory clinical experience, working alongside a physician-scientist on a regular basis (weekly or every other week) for up to 40 half-day sessions that would be equivalent to a 4 week full-time rotation.
  5. The clerkship will be run by a physician-scientist faculty working in conjunction with an experienced clinical clerkship director. These faculty will work to develop a set of criteria for evaluation of both the students and faculty.
  6. The clerkship will be graded and count towards the completion of clinical clerkships required for graduation.
  7. Students who have completed this clerkship will have several options under the current system when returning to the medical curriculum.

Option 1: Begin their clinical clerkships in Block II, using this ‘4-week’ clerkship together with 8 weeks of Research Elective Time Credit to have a total of 12 weeks of 4th year credit. This student’s third year clerkship will not be completed until part-way into the final year of medical school.

Option 2: Begin clinical clerkships with the beginning of Block 1.

To assist you in planning your graduate studies and transition back to the third year of medical school, we offer the following checklist and timetable:

(This advice is outlined for students in the traditional path. The plan follows a similar line for other students with dates adjusted accordingly. )

  • Defense of Dissertation must be completed before entering BUSM III on July 1.
  • Winter before defense—Meet with MD/PhD faculty advisor to review plan.
  • Try for a May thesis defense date to give you time to respond to committee issues and file thesis in library.

    If you are in jeopardy of not making this deadline, make sure the MD/PhD program office knows so that contingencies can be considered.

  • Timeline for Building Third-Year Schedules:
    • Friday, January 9, 2009 : Mandatory Class Meeting: “Choosing Your 3rd-Year Schedule”
    • January 9–January 27, 2009: Enter sequence selections on Medical School Registrar’s website
    • Friday, February 13, 2009: Final sequences appear on Medical School Registrar’s website
    • February 13–March 8, 2009: Enter location selections on Medical School Registrar’s website
    • Friday, April 17, 2009: Final 3rd-Year clerkship schedules appear on Medical School Registrar’s website

F. Transition to Clinical Clerkships:

  1. Approximately 1.5 years before anticipated completion of graduate research students should contact the MD/PhD administrator, who will initiate the process of linking the students to the medical school registrar, curriculum and list serve.
  2. At this time, students will also register for the graduate phase clinical clerkship.
  3. The February/March before re-entry to the medical school curriculum, students will fill out clerkship transition forms and participate in the medical school lottery for clinical rotations.
  4. Clinical clerkships will be administered through the medical school.
  5. Students may receive credit for their graduate phase work including research elective credit and the graduate phase clinical clerkship credit. Note: Students MUST request this credit, it does not automatically appear.

Research Elective Credit for MD/PhD Students Returning to MED Clerkships (BUSM III)

The Research Elective for MD/PhD students returning to MED clerkships will have a duration of up to 8 weeks. A student may start the BUSM II year with up to 8 weeks of graduate research time counted as a 4th year research elective. Students may opt for this elective when they are in the the final phase of their PhD studies—when they are in process of completing and defending their PhD dissertation. Students selecting to take this elective option should obtain a Transfer Credit Form from the Medical School Registrar. Your Advisor and Graduate Program Chair or Director must approve this request.

BUSM IV

  1. The Sub-Internship
  2. ERAS and The Match
  3. 4th-year electives
  4. Clinical Investigation Clerkship Elective (approval process now in progress, see below for descriptions).
  5. Research electives (see above under BUSM III options ), going abroad?
  6. USMLE Step II—when is the “right” time to take it?

Clinical Investigation 4th-Year Clerkship—for MD or MD/PhD Students—4-week elective offered during BUSM IV.

The Clinical Investigation Clerkship is currently in undergoing the final approval process but is designed to provide formal training in clinical research. The clerkship will provide a clear understanding of the clinical research process, from study design to implementation and data analysis. It will consist of three components:

  1. Students will work for 4 weeks directly with a clinical research investigator or team of investigators on a clinical research project run through the GCRC.
  2. Self-learning module under guidance of course director
    1. NIH web-based course in clinical research resulting in certification
    2. Complete some number of Clinical Research newsletter and self-learning modules
    3. Case-based learning section on trial design
  3. 3. Review some number of IRB applications in conjunction with IRB committee member, and attend 2 IRB meetings.

The Clinical Investigation Clerkship will be graded and count towards the completion of clinical clerkships required for graduation.

The Curriculum Sequence is available as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 or greater is required to view this file. To download the Reader for free, go to: www.adobe.com.

Research Opportunities

Students at BU have the opportunity to be involved within the medical campus, specialized centers such as the Framingham Heart Study, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, Arthritis Center, Cancer Research Center, Pulmonary Center, Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, and Alzheimer’s Disease Center. BU has Advanced Core Services including Mass Spectrometry, a DNA/Protein Core, Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility, NMR Spectroscopy Core, Cryo-Electron Microscope Facility, Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope, Transgenic Facility, Cardiovascular Imaging Suite, and a modern Laboratory Animal Science Center. The hospital has also recently opened an advance cancer center, and is building a National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory. The latter is funded in part by a $124 million grant from NIH, which is the largest single grant ever given by NIH to a medical center.

The Charles River Campus provides equally rich opportunities for MD/PhD candidates. Students can join the Department of Biomedical Engineering, or join one of the many laboratories throughout the Charles River Campus that is run by a faculty with a joint appointment in the medical center. For instance, the chemistry department provides students with opportunities for research in nanotechnology or chemical drug screening through the Chemical Methods Library Design (CMLD) center, which is a NIH roadmap facility that couples combinatorial chemistry and pharmaceutical research. The Photonics Center provides opportunities in application of photonics research to biomedicine, such as work using lasers to detect incipient Alzheimer’s disease.

For a listing of faculty reseach interests: Division of Graduate Medical Sciences Faculty Research Interests.

Transition Advice

Matriculation to BU:

Students should introduce themselves to the Program Director, Dr. Linda Hyman, the faculty advisors (Benjamin Wolozin and Stephanie Lee) and to the MD, PhD administrator (Jesse Macomber):

Principal Contacts:

Linda Hyman, lhyman@bu.edu, 8-5744

Jesse Macomber, macomber@medsci.bumc.bu.edu, 8-5250

Benjamin Wolozin, bwolozin@bu.edu, 4-2652

Stephanie Lee, Stephanie.Lee@bmc.org, 8-8526

Students will need to get BU identification badges and become registered with BU.

Student Activities During the Summer between BUSM I and BUSM II (Med Year I and II).

Students begin looking for labs to rotate in for this summer during the winter/spring of BUSM I. Lists of Faculty with ongoing research can are available on the MD/PhD website. The program director/faculty advisors meet with students to help them choose laboratories. Students typically perform one 7-week research rotation per summer, but students area allowed to do two 4-week rotations if desired. A summer stipend is given to students for these lab rotations from the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences.

Advice for MD/PhD students nearing the graduate phase research:

Identify a department or program: Departments and programs need to plan in advance to guarantee student stipends. This means that MD/PhD students need to alert the administrator and graduate training director for the department or program during the spring before the start the graduate phase of research. This can be done later, but gets progressively more difficult for everyone as fall approaches.

Identify a mentor: Ideally students will have identified a mentor at the time they notify the department or program that they are joining. However, students do not always succeed in identifying a mentor before starting their graduate training. Identifying a mentor can be done as late as the fall after their graduate phase training has started, which is sometimes necessary so that students can rotate during the summer after BUSM II.

Take the Boards: Students take the boards part I during the summer after BUSM II is finished, but before they start their graduate training. Students generally allow 3–4 weeks to prepare for the boards.

Student Activities During the Graduate Phase

  1. Medical School Credit: Credit for medical school coursework is given by all departments, but the particular amount of credit varies by department. Students follow the rules of the particular department.
  2. Departmental requirements: Outside of the dissertation research, each department has curriculum requirements including courses and qualifying exams. These vary among departments. Current information is available on departmental websites.
  3. Quantitative training: Statistical methods are taught as courses (such as MS700, elementary biostatistics, taught by Ron Kiliany) are available to graduate department that participates in the MD/PhD program. Students learn basic statistical analyses relevant to experimental design. Some programs, such as Biomedical Engineering, Genetics & Genomics, and Bioinformatics, have additional requirements that reflect the specific needs of those fields.
  4. Qualifying exams: Students take qualifying exams within two years of initiating graduate work. The format of the qualifiers differs among departments, but includes a written and an oral component.
  5. Dissertation committee: Dissertation committees are formed after students pass the qualifying exams. The professors on each committee are selected based on expertise and departmental requirements (e.g., some departments require at least one member to be from outside BU). Dissertation committees are requested to meet twice a year to monitor the students’ progress.
  6. Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship: As MD/PhD students enter their (anticipated) last year of graduate work, they participate in two courses designed by the MD/PhD program to ease re-entry into the medical curriculum. Students are encouraged to take an elective Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship for MD/PhD students who are within 1.5 years of completing their PhD training. Students taking the graduate phase clinical clerkship attend clinic one afternoon per week during which they practice taking histories from patients, and perform physicals on patients under supervision of a physician. Students completing this course are receive one month of credit from the medical school curriculum. All MD/PhD students returning to the medical school curriculum are required to take the 5-session Clinical Skills Refresher Course. This is a 5-week course that meets one afternoon per week. Each week students receive training in a different subject. The subjects include: basic clinical care skills, cardiology skills, pulmonary skills, neurology skills, pediatric skills and OB/Gyn skills.

Advice for MD/PhD students nearing the end of the graduate phase research:

Students who believe to be within 1 year of finishing their graduate work need to fill out a Clerkship Transition Form and submit it to the MD/PhD administrative assistant, Jesse Macomber.

The MD/PhD program also requires students to take the Clinical Refresher Course, which is organized by Stephanie Lee and Peter Bergathon. This is a 6-session course that is presented in the spring, which familiarizes students with the physical exam, communicating with patients and gives tips on comportment in the clinical environment.

The MD/PhD program encourages students who are within 1 year of finishing their graduate (PhD) research to choose a graduate phase clinical clerkship option. This is discussed on the Clinical Opportunities section of the MD/PhD website. Students are encouraged to take the full clerkship, which is 40 half-days over the period of a year, and they get 1 month of credit in BUSM IV for this. Students may also do 20 half-days over half a year, for which they get 2 weeks of BUSM IV credit. Students need to have a mentor who will observe their activities and write an evaluation at the end of your clerkship. Students can work with the faculty advisors on identifying an appropriate mentor or they can identify their own mentor. Regardless of the mechanism, the mentors should be sent the Clerkship Guidelines, which can be downloaded from the MD/PhD website.

Checklist and timetable for transitioning back to 3rd-year Medical School

(This advice is outlined for students in the traditional path. The plan follows a similar line for other students with dates adjusted accordingly. )

  • You must defend your dissertation before entering 3rd year—June 1
  • Winter before defense—Meet with MD/PhD faculty advisor to review plan
  • Try for a May thesis defense date to give you time to respond to committee issues and file thesis in library.
  • If you are in jeopardy of not making this deadline, make sure the MD/PhD program office knows so that contingencies can be considered.
  • MD/PhD students are awarded 2 months of optional BUSM IV clerkship credit for their graduate work, and they receive a 3rd month if they have finished the full Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship. Students must formally request this credit to get it. The main use of the credit is for students who cannot start the clinical clerkships at the traditional time.
  • Clinical clerkships are now grouped in blocks, the blocks are available on the website of the BUSM Registrar and on this web site under the button, Clinical Clerkship Rotations. As described below, we recommend that you start with a clinical clerkship that is less important to your career, because MD/PhD students frequently find the adjustment from the laboratory environment to the clinical environment challenging.
  • Approximate Timetable for clerkship registration:
    • February 2nd week: Mandatory Class Meeting: “Choosing Your 3rd-Year Schedule”
    • February 2nd week to March: Enter sequence selections on Registrar’s website
    • March 3rd week: Final sequences appear on Registrar’s website
    • March 3rd week–April 2nd week: Enter location selections on Registrar’s website
    • May 1st week: Final 3rd year clerkship schedules appear on Registrar’s website

Choosing the right rotation to start off on (Does it really matter? … Yes!)

  1. Rotations that students find less challenging—Psych or Family Med
  2. Rotations that MD/PhD students find more challenging—Surgery, Medicine, OB/Gyn
  3. Others—Pediatrics, Neurology, Radiology
  4. Refer to the Alpha Omega Alpha Handbook for Third-Year Clerkships

The OSA Student Policy and Reference Manual can be accessed through the following link:

www.bu.edu/cms/www.bumc.bu.edu/busm-osa/files/student policy and reference manual.pdf.

Research Elective Time Credit for MD/PhD Students Returning to MED Clerkships (BUSM III)

The Research Elective Time Credit for MD/PhD students returning to MED clerkships will have a duration of up to 8 weeks. A student may start the BUSM II with up to 8 weeks of time counted as 4th-year research elective time. This time will be spent completing and defending their PhD thesis. Students electing this elective time credit should obtain a Transfer Credit Form from the Medical School Registrar. Your PI and Graduate Program Chair or Director must approve this request.

BUSM IV

  1. The Sub-Internship
  2. ERAS and The Match
  3. 4th-year electives—Students typically perform some elective at institutions in which they hope to do a residency.
  4. Clinical Investigation Clerkship Elective (approval process now in progress, see below for descriptions).
  5. Research electives (see above under BUSM III options for Research Elective Time Credit for MD/PhD students returning to MED clerkships.
  6. USMLE Step II—when is the “right” time to take it?

Advice on Choosing a residency for MD, PhD students:

It is recommended that students schedule an appointment with Dr. Paul, M. O’Bryan, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, for advice on chosing a residency program.

Clinical Opportunities

Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship: As MD/PhD students enter their (anticipated) last year of graduate work, they participate in two courses designed by the MD/PhD program to ease re-entry into the medical curriculum. Students are encouraged to take an elective Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship for MD/PhD students who are within 1.5 years of completing their PhD training. Students taking the graduate phase clinical clerkship attend clinic one afternoon per week during which they practice taking histories from patients, and perform physicals on patients under supervision of a physician. Students completing this course are receive one month of credit from the medical school curriculum. All MD/PhD students returning to the medical school curriculum are required to take the 5 session Clinical Skills Refresher Course. This is a 5-week course that meets one afternoon per week. Each week students receive training in a different subject. The subjects include: basic clinical care skills, cardiology skills, pulmonary skills, neurology skills, pediatric skills and OB/Gyn skills.

The guidelines for the Graduate Phase Clinical Clerkship are posted below.

BUSM IV (Med Year 4). Students follow a clinical curriculum similar to that of MD students, but have enhanced opportunities to finish research projects and are encouraged to take the 4th-Year Clinical Investigation Clerkship (newly established). I) The Sub-Internship; II) ERAS and The Match; III) 4th-year electives; IV) Clinical Investigation Clerkship Elective (approval process now in progress, see below for descriptions); V) Research electives (see above under BUSM III options for Research Elective Time Credit for MD/PhD students returning to MED clerkships); VI) USMLE Step II.

a. Clinical Investigation 4th-Year Clerkship is for MD or MD/PhD Students. This is a 4-week elective offered during BUSM IV. The clerkship provides formal training in clinical research. The clerkship provides students with a clear understanding of the clinical research process, from study design to implementation and data analysis. The Clinical Investigation Clerkship will be graded and count towards the completion of clinical clerkships required for graduation. The Clinical Investigation Clerkship consists of three components:

  1. Students work for 4 weeks directly with a clinical research investigator or team of investigators on a clinical research project run through the GCRC.
  2. Self-learning module under guidance of course director. NIH web-based course in clinical research resulting in certification. Complete 4 Clinical Research newsletter and self-learning modules. Case-based learning section on trial design.
  3. Review two IRB applications in conjunction with IRB committee member, and attend 2 IRB meetings.