{"id":45511,"date":"2025-09-27T01:58:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T01:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/45511\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T01:58:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T01:58:05","slug":"should-you-be-satisfied-with-just-a-medical-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/45511\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Be Satisfied With \u2018Just\u2019 a Medical Degree?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting a medical degree is a major achievement. But does the future of healthcare require even more letters after your name? Whether it\u2019s part of the initial plan or a second act, a rising number of medical students and current doctors are pursuing a dual degree. Many are not simply following a distinctive career path. They are aiming toward course-correcting deficits and exploring how additional training could help reshape a healthcare system that many feel is in crisis. Their skills are crucial, they believe, to reimagine healthcare for the future.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeing the trend in enrollment rates and the expansion of dual degree programs. While data from the Association of American Medical Colleges<\/a> have shown that 9% of medical students overall are earning a dual degree, a 2021 study<\/a> found a 434% increase in students pursuing an MD\/MPH degree from 2010 to 2018. Other research has noted a growing number of medical schools providing dual options. In 2022, 61%<\/a> of medical schools offered an MD\/MBA program \u2014 up from 26% in 2002.<\/p>\n

Whether they\u2019re pursuing a combination of clinical work and research, entrepreneurship, or health policy, the goal is the same: better patient care. Medscape Medical News spoke with four medical students and current physicians about what shaped their decision to pursue a second (or even third) degree and the value in \u201cnot staying in their lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

MD + Health Policy: Creating Meaningful Change<\/p>\n

Sydney Sharp, a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, felt the drive to pursue a dual degree early in her training. As an undergrad at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Sharp earned both a BS in biological sciences and a BA in African American studies. \u201cThat influenced my trajectory, as it opened my eyes to how social inequities and social injustice shape health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"photoSydney Sharp<\/p>\n

Postgraduation, Sharp entered medical school, but it didn\u2019t feel like enough. \u201cI missed that interdisciplinary aspect that I unknowingly made for myself in undergrad. I recognize that our health is shaped by far more than what happens in the exam room.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Sharp took time off to earn her master\u2019s in public policy at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York City. She recently finished and will soon return to medical school to reintegrate back into the MD program.<\/p>\n

Internships with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV<\/a>\/AIDS in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was part of the Human Rights and Law Department and conducted Medicaid policy research as part of her required longitudinal research project, also helped Sharp think outside the exam room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw firsthand how law, economics, and health systems intersect,\u201d Sharp explained. And while there have been more of these essential conversations happening in medical school, she felt it was important to seek out additional training.<\/p>\n

At a time when health systems are facing both rapid innovation and persistent inequities, Sharp feels that the sweet spot of the dual degree in medicine and health policy will give her an edge, \u201ccombining patient-level insight with system-level change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really at a crossroads in how we want to move forward as a country,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cI think the pandemic revealed a lot of unfortunate cracks in the system, and it showed how factors like housing, transportation, education, and healthcare are inseparable and how critical it is for physicians to have a voice in policy conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The path has not been without its obstacles. One of the biggest: explaining this nontraditional route to others in medicine. It takes a conversation, but eventually, she says, \u201cit clicks.\u201d<\/p>\n

MD + MPH + MBA: Diversifying Your Skill Set<\/p>\n

Leslie Kim already earned a combined MD\/MPH degree at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, more than a decade ago. She is now adding an MBA. \u201cBefore I started med school, I thought I wanted to be involved in global health,\u201d said Kim, who studied abroad in South Africa in college and has worked on medical mission trips during her training and as an attending physician.<\/p>\n

\"photoLeslie Kim, MD, MPH<\/p>\n

A decade into her career as a facial plastic surgeon, Kim began planning her second act. \u201cI\u2019m a professor, I have developed an amazing practice I love. I could do this for the rest of my life and be happy,\u201d she said. But she knows she can do more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pursuing an executive MBA to broaden my thinking and improve my business and entrepreneurial skills to transform my clinical practice and open up new opportunities,\u201d Kim said. Currently a clinical professor of otolaryngology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, Kim enrolled in the university\u2019s MBA program and will complete her degree in May 2026, 18 months after starting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MBA will help elevate my knowledge to make better business and leadership decisions,\u201d said Kim. For example, as part of an entrepreneurship class, Kim created and pitched an idea for a surgical medical device, and she has now filed a provisional patent application.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could amount to something or not,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBut there could be potential for innovating and transforming surgical care, not just for me but for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are bigger implications for pursuing an MBA as an MD. \u201cWe\u2019re in this age of disruption,\u201d Kim said. \u201cAI [artificial intelligence] is going to change healthcare. We haven\u2019t quite seen it yet, since healthcare is slower to adopt such disruption, but it\u2019s coming. Diversifying your skill set with different degrees may put you more at the forefront of innovation to accept and leverage it.\u201d<\/p>\n

MD + Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI): Giving Future Patients Hope<\/p>\n

Ian Jaffe\u2019s career goals also look different from when he started medical school in 2020. \u201cI did not plan to do a dual degree. But one thing medical training is especially good at is exposing you to a lot of different patients through clinical rotation. It was impossible to go through that without seeing patients [where] we have nothing we can currently offer them in terms of treatment or seeing patients that the medical field has failed in other ways,\u201d explained Jaffe. In May, he graduated from the MD\/MSCI program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City.<\/p>\n

\"photoIan Jaffe, MD, MSCI<\/p>\n

After meeting patients with kidney disease on the waitlist for transplant, Jaffe decided to pursue research in organ failure and transplantation. \u201cThese patients are on the waitlist because we don\u2019t have enough organs to meet demand. I realized I didn\u2019t have the skills to advance research in solving this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MSCI changed that. The focus of Jaffe\u2019s research is on prospective technologies to create new sources of organs, whether those are rehabilitated human organs or genetically edited pig organs that can be transplanted into humans. Ultimately, his goal is to work at an academic medical center as a transplant surgeon while also conducting research to advance the technologies that \u2014 he hopes \u2014 will one day eliminate the need for a waitlist.<\/p>\n

The journey hasn\u2019t always been smooth. \u201cDuring my final year of medical school, it was tough at times to balance clinical duties with the research work required for the dual degree. But in many ways, that challenge was excellent preparation for the future, since balancing patient care and research is an ever-present part of a career in academic medicine,\u201d said Jaffe.<\/p>\n

Jaffe believes the dual degree is part of a larger trend of seeking additional education and training. \u201cRegardless of degree, the motivation is similar,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing problems in the medical field and wanting to develop the skills to fix them. We\u2019re recognizing that it takes more formalized training to be equipped to make an impact down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

MD + Bioethics: \u2018It\u2019s Infused in Everything We Do\u2019<\/p>\n

Alyssa Burgart also took a nontraditional route toward medicine. She originally studied bioethics and worked professionally in the field. She then entered medical school to earn a master\u2019s in bioethics along with a medical degree. \u201cIf I can be honest, this was very masochistic of me, despite it being a wonderful experience,\u201d said Burgart, who graduated from the dual program at Loyola University Chicago in Chicago in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"photoAlyssa Burgart, MD<\/p>\n

Why the unconventional path? Working in bioethics, Burgart had the opportunity to be in a hospital setting, but she also sought to understand medicine. \u201cI wanted to figure out how to thread those things together in a clinical job. Getting a master\u2019s degree is a way to make it clear that I wanted to make it a serious, long-term part of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burgart was blazing her own trail. \u201cWhen I was in the [dual degree] program, there were very few masters in bioethics at all. I feel that I\u2019ve really taken that learning that I did at Loyola and have been able to expand it into building the kind of career that I wanted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The field remains small today. Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, professor and graduate program director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University Chicago, says the program enrolls between one and four students annually. But they\u2019re exceptionally \u201ccommitted.\u201d Parsi, who is the past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, explains that while physicians can obtain additional training and certificates in bioethics, those who want to be leaders, especially in academia, are more likely to go for this dual degree.<\/p>\n

After finishing her medical training, Burgart sat down with the director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics to talk about possible opportunities. Her background was a huge advantage. \u201cThat meeting highlighted for me how valuable the master\u2019s degree was. It further contextualized my work and education, and I could pop into the Stanford ecosystem as someone who didn\u2019t need to go through additional training as an attending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Burgart is the medical director of Clinical Ethics at Stanford Medicine Children\u2019s Health, Palo Alto, California. She also works as a pediatric anesthesiologist. \u201cYou really see how ethics and ethical practice is infused in pretty much everything we do as clinicians. We have more responsibility than \u2018do no harm.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sharp, Kim, Jaffe, and Burgart, the extra work (and sometimes years) involved in a dual degree is worth the effort. It\u2019s all part of their larger plan to enact change where they know they can make a difference. They believe that policy, research, developing new tools and technologies, or making sure medical ethics are part of the conversation will create a better future for patients, in a time when it\u2019s needed more than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting a medical degree is a major achievement. But does the future of healthcare require even more letters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[30444,40160,40151,2046,1122,40154,25965,134,40159,527,40153,38292,232,40150,111,139,69,40158,40157,40152,9631,40161,4249,40155,40156],"class_list":["post-45511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-academia","tag-academic-medicine","tag-bioethics","tag-career","tag-employment","tag-employment-contract","tag-ethics","tag-health","tag-health-policy","tag-healthcare","tag-job-contract","tag-job-interview","tag-jobs","tag-medical-life-physician-lifestyle-medical-lifestyle-resident-lifestyle-medical-student-lifestyle-nurse-lifestyle","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-organ-transplant","tag-organ-transplantation","tag-profession","tag-student","tag-teaching-hospital","tag-transplant","tag-transplantation","tag-transplantation-of-an-organ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}