Background and Introduction
The M.D.-Ph.D. Program at Yale University was established in
1969 and graduated its first students in 1973 which coincided
with receipt of its first funding from the National Institutes
of General Medical Sciences. The dual degree Program is meant
to provide trainees with a broad exposure to human biology and
medicine, and to an in-depth and rigorous training in one of
the scholarly disciplines relevant to medicine. It is our expectation,
met by the positions of our alumni, that graduates of the Program
will develop into academic physicians who will assume faculty
positions in either basic science or clinical departments of
schools of medicine. This will enable them to fulfill the goals
of their training: provide leadership in academic medicine and
in research related to medicine and human welfare. We are proud
of the fact that we have now graduated 206 individuals with
the combined M.D. and Ph.D. Approximately 54% of our graduates
pursue careers in clinical departments while 32% are in basic
science departments. Our goal of preparing physician-scientists
for academic/research careers has been successful in that ~90%
of our graduates who have finished training are carrying out
peer-reviewed research in academic settings. Graduates of our
Program have always obtained their top picks of residencies,
most often in programs that emphasize research and academic
careers.
The Yale System of Medical Education and
the M.D.-Ph.D. Program
The Yale University School of Medicine emphasizes the tradition
that encourages its medical students to engage in significant
research and prepare, defend and publish a thesis in order
to graduate, a feature unique to our School. Medical students
are selected and matriculated based on their experience and
interest in research or some form of scholarly pursuit. This
philosophy of the “Yale System”, which has been
in existence since 1934, regards medical students as graduate
students who plan their own individualized programs of study.
Because of this rich tradition of individualized study and
the thesis requirement, the atmosphere at the Medical School
is highly compatible with the aspirations of the M.D.-Ph.D.
Program which is a keystone of the “Yale System”.
Current Students
As of September 2007, we have 86 students enrolled in the
Program at Yale University. M.D.-Ph.D. students are admitted
in an “undifferentiated” status in order to enable
them to make long-term decisions about graduate training only
after they are equipped with a thorough knowledge of the opportunities
at Yale. About 10 students each year enter our M.D.-Ph.D.
Program and make up ~10% of the Medical School class. In order
to be eligible for support by the M.D.-Ph.D. Program, applicants
must be US citizens or Permanent Residents. All of the students
who enter the Program have had previous research experiences
of a high caliber.
Program Highlights
The strength of our Program is the flexibility of the Yale
System of medical education and the breadth and depth of the
graduate programs at Yale, unified under the Biological and
Biomedical Sciences Program (BBS). These programs of medical
and graduate education allow M.D.-Ph.D. students to customize
their educational paths. The extensiveness of graduate training
at Yale provides students with opportunities in biomedical
tracks including Cell Biology & Molecular Physiology,
Genetics and Development, Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular
Biophysics & Biochemistry, Neuroscience, Pharmacologic
Sciences and Molecular Medicine, Molecular, Cellular &
Developmental Biology, Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry.
We also accommodate students in non-traditional areas such
as Epidemiology and Public Health, Psychology, Computer Sciences,
Sociology, and Anthropology provided an appropriate program
of study can be worked out with these departments and that
funding support is guaranteed for M.D.-Ph.D. students. New
programs in Translational Research (Genomics and Proteonomics,
Clinical Immunology, etc.), and in Biomedical Engineering
will provide new training opportunities for M.D.-Ph.D. students.
Another major strength of the Yale University M.D.-Ph.D.
Program is the close working relationship between the clinical
and basic science faculty. Significant numbers of clinical
faculty, in departments such as Internal Medicine, Dermatology,
Pediatrics, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Surgery, Ophthalmology,
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedics, and Psychiatry, carry
out basic research focused on clinically relevant problems.
Many of these investigators hold joint appointments in basic
science departments. They participate in teaching medical
and graduate courses and act as research advisors and mentors
for our M.D.-Ph.D. students. Because of this large group of
clinicians carrying out investigative work, there is abundant
cooperative, interdisciplinary research between these investigators
and those in basic science departments.
Finally, we believe that our Program provides a unique opportunity
for students to make the correlation between basic and clinical
sciences during all phases of training which will ultimately
enhance their ability to see early on the importance of connecting
their research to practical medical problems. During the first
two years of the Program, several of the courses that our
M.D.-Ph.D. students will take as part of the Medical School
curriculum are co-listed as Graduate School courses. Most
students take these courses for credit and are thus able to
obtain their two required Honors grades during the first years
of medical school. More importantly, several of these courses
are requirements or electives for graduate programs in which
the students will enroll. We have begun several new courses
designed specifically for M.D.-Ph.D. and science-oriented
medical students that emphasize the direct connections between
modern biomedical research and human pathophysiology. In addition,
a unique aspect of our Program is that the majority of students
complete six months of clinical clerkships in Internal Medicine
and Psychiatry and Ob/Gyn following their second year of medical
school and prior to beginning thesis work in a mentor’s
laboratory. This prepares them for participation in the Primary
Care Clinic at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, an Ambulatory
Medicine Clinic at the West Haven VA Hospital, or Longitudinal
Care Pediatric Clinics. These clinics, in which students participate
during their thesis years, keep them connected with concepts
of clinical medicine and pediatrics, enable them to obtain
credit toward ambulatory and primary care requirements in
Medicine and Pediatrics, and ease the transition back to the
wards upon completion of the thesis work without compromising
laboratory time.
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