MD-MPH Education
Is a MD-MPH dual degree for you?
Where do medicine and public health intersect? Is an MD/MPH for you? Is now the time to tack on another degree?The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) MD-MPH resource guide can help with these and other related questions. The Association of Schools of Public Health also offers resources for prospective students, including information on careers in Public Health.
Although Stanford does not offer a Masters Degree in Public Health, we strongly encourage students to consider graduate-level training in public health as a complement to their medical education.
Most MPH programs require that students select
an area of specialization. These include, but are
not limited to:
- Epidemiology
- Biostatistics
- Health Policy
- Community Health
- Environmental Health
- Maternal & Child Health
- Infectious Disease
- Public Health Nutrition
Many programs also offer specialization in international health, aging and multicultural health.
Most often, students who want to pursue an MPH during their medical education take a year off after completion of their 1st year of clinical rotations (in fact, many schools do not accept applications from pre-clinical students). Over time a large number of Stanford medical students have chosen this path, completing MPH programs at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Harvard, UCLA, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and other Schools of Public Health.
Others elect to pursue an MPH after graduating from medical school, as part of a training fellowship, or as a sabbatical later in their careers. There are advantages to each scenario.
Stanford and UC Berkeley: A Unique Collaboration
Students enrolled in the Scholarly Concentration in Community Health can apply for the collaborative MD-MPH Program with the University of California, Berkeley, designed to train medical students to be effective physician scholars and public health leaders. The program allows students to integrate their year of training at Berkeley with the community-based work begun at Stanford, and to complete original research that fulfills requirements for both degrees.
More information about the Stanford UC Berkeley Dual Degree program can be found here.
