Global Health vs. MD vs. PA

[kpizzle]

Hello.

I am having some trouble deciding what to do after undergrad. I am EXTREMELY interested in Global Health and I'd like to be able to diagnose patients as an MD. Are there any residences/global health tailored medical schools in the USA? I'm having trouble finding these schools. Any help and insight would be great. Also, can PA's do global health? I'm not completely sold on the MD route. But if I did, I'd do an MD/MPH program. Any advice on how to decide on a career would be amazing. Please. Struggling with decisions as a senior in college.

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[CrunchyPeanutButter]

Hello.

I am having some trouble deciding what to do after undergrad. I am EXTREMELY interested in Global Health and I'd like to be able to diagnose patients as an MD. Are there any residences/global health tailored medical schools in the USA? I'm having trouble finding these schools. Any help and insight would be great. Also, can PA's do global health? I'm not completely sold on the MD route. But if I did, I'd do an MD/MPH program. Any advice on how to decide on a career would be amazing. Please. Struggling with decisions as a senior in college.

Tulane had a huge emphasis on doing an MD/MPH, they also had a global health track!

 

[RogueUnicorn]

I can't imagine that the "global health MD" isn't completely oversaturated with supply. Over the past 5 or so years it seems it's become a pretty fashionable thing to do.

What I'm trying to say is you should first articulate why you want a such-and-such career before anyone can advise you effectively. What are you trying to do? What do you envision accomplishing? And are you sure you're not one of 10,000 "zomg must help afrika with my healing" premeds?

 

[sss1219]

Could you tell us what exactly you are interested in about the field? E.g. working in areas with low access to care, health policy advocacy, or even M&E/surveillance research? Global health is a pretty vast field.

If you are looking to work with underserved populations, I would look into schools that have integrated MPH degrees or public health outlets that let you do rotations/outreach work in low access areas. UMiami's MD/MPH degree is one that pops to mind - the entirety of the 3rd year and almost half of the 4th year rotations are done in an underserved area of FL. I think you would get similar experiences with rural health programs too, so you may want to look into those.

Also in case you may be interested, UCSF just recently started a PhD in global health within the past couple years. Not sure what the job outlook would be with such a degree, but it may be worth looking into.

 

[workaholic181]

Hello.

I am having some trouble deciding what to do after undergrad. I am EXTREMELY interested in Global Health and I'd like to be able to diagnose patients as an MD. Are there any residences/global health tailored medical schools in the USA? I'm having trouble finding these schools. Any help and insight would be great. Also, can PA's do global health? I'm not completely sold on the MD route. But if I did, I'd do an MD/MPH program. Any advice on how to decide on a career would be amazing. Please. Struggling with decisions as a senior in college.

Totally normal what you're going through. First I would decide if you want to be a provider, or if you want to be more on the research and advocacy side of public health, as the above poster suggested.

There are tons of MD/MPH programs. Also obviously doctors without borders, and other shorter term commitment medical abroad organizations.

At this time, Doctors without Borders does not recruit PAs. But if you're "not sold" on MD, I imagine there are other global health things you could take part in as a PA.. Again, you need to decide first and foremost if you want to be a provider, and if yes, if you want to be a physician.

 

[pewpew95]

George Washington has a global health focus/track I believe