Each year, the MD/PhD Program sponsors a Retreat. The retreat is planned by a committee led by students and MD/PhD Program leadership. The annual MD/PhD Retreat is held off site during a weekend in the fall. Activities generally include a keynote address by an internationally prominent scientist, a State of the Program presentation by the MD/PhD Program Co-Directors, an alumni discussion panel, a poster and oral platform session, and small group breakout sessions focused on issues relevant to specific stages of training (preclinical, graduate, clinical) and career planning. Time is set aside for recreational activities such as hiking, bike riding or swimming. Attendees at the Retreat typically include the Program Directors, faculty involved in MD/PhD education, alumni and students, and other program stakeholders.
All MD/PhD students will be expected to complete the following MD/PhD-specific courses:
Molecular, Cellular, & Genomic Foundations - 1st semester of Year 1
Biomedical Science for MD/PhDs (BMS) - Fall and Spring of Year 1
Problem Solving in Biomedical Sciences - Year 2
Medical Scientist Grand Rounds (MSGR) - MD1 throughout time in the PhD-phase. Students writing their PhD dissertation may apply to the Director to be excused from this course.
Clinical Refresher - provides MD/PhD students with an individualized program to facilitate their transition from the PhD/research to the MD/clinical years. An eight-week course is designed to facilitate the transition from PhD training years to clinical medicine years. The course incorporates practical and didactic sessions to help students regain familiarity with history taking, physical examination skills, written and oral presentations, and clinical reasoning. MD/PhD students will receive a full day orientation re-introducing the fundamentals of history taking and physical examination skills. The course is split into four sections: Clinical Basics Orientation, Supervised Patient Care, Inpatient Shadowing, and Individual Patient Care. From these four sections there will be six weeks of direct patient encounters, during which students will practice their oral and written presentations and participate in didactic case discussions led by field experts. The course incorporates board-style questions into each weekly topic, thereby introducing the concept of multiple-choice format clinical reasoning. By the end of the course, you will be able to conduct history and physical examinations, present in both written and oral forms, interpret and assimilate clinical data to create differential diagnoses, and review pathophysiology of common disease processes.
All MD/PhD students must complete a Core Curriculum. The Core Curriculum will vary depending on the training area and the specific PhD degree (Biomedical Sciences or Neuroscience). The Core Curriculum provides the students with a strong set of general concepts and vocabulary that underpins so much of cutting-edge biomedical research in their area of interest.
MD/PhD student complete one rotation over the course of four to five weeks during their first summer in the program. And they complete their second and third rotations, also four to five weeks in length, during their second summer in the program. Please refer to the PhD Chapter for more information on laboratory rotations.
Please refer to the PhD Chapter for information on seminars, works-in-progress, and journal clubs.
The PhD work is usually completed in four years after the initial two years of the Medical School. Students will complete the final clinical training component of the Medical School curriculum after the doctoral dissertation has been successfully completed. During the PhD phase, students are encouraged to build upon the pathophysiologic and clinical diagnosis material already mastered through continued clinical exposures, through participation in EHHOP and other activities.
During the final year of PhD phase, students will participate in an intensive MD/PhD Clinical Refresher Course. This is an eight-week course during which time students participate in a full day orientation that refreshes clinical skills including history-taking and physical examination skills and oral and written presentation skills. Students engage in weekly clinical encounters where they receive tailored feedback on their oral and written presentations. Sessions are geared toward expectations of clinical clerks during their third year, communication skills, use of the electronic medical record, and focused case-based pathophysiology sessions.
MD/PhD students will not be permitted to begin the third year of the Medical School curriculum after the PhD period of work unless the dissertation is both defended and deposited. The responsibility for open, realistic and careful planning is shared by the student and dissertation advisor.
Please refer to the PhD Chapter for more information on course requirements.
MSTP milestones by phase: MSTP Milestones
MSTP milestones by year: https://gradschool.mssm.edu/mstp-roadmap/
Maximum Time to Degree: The maximum time limit for completion of all requirements for the PhD and MD degrees is ten years after matriculation into the MD/PhD Program. Students who do not meet these deadlines will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including academic probation and expulsion.
Please refer to the Medical School Handbook for greater detail on the MD curriculum.
Arts and Science of Medicine and Longitudinal Clinical Experience
Structures
Pathology
Immunology
Physiology
Medical Microbiology
Courses
Arts and Science of Medicine and Longitudinal Clinical Experience
Brain and Behavior
Cardiovascular
Pulmonary
Gastrointestinal
Musculoskeletal
Hematology
Obstetrics, Gynecology Genitourinary
Endocrine
Renal
Step 1 Dedicated Study Time
Curriculum combines clinical rotations in core clinical areas with 10 weeks of elective time for career exploration. The schedule is comprised of four 12-week modules.
Module 1 - Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gyn and Elective
Module 2 - Inpatient Medicine and Ambulatory Care Geriatrics
Module 3 - Surgery/Anesthesiology and Elective
Module 4 - Neurology and Psychiatry and Elective
Curriculum is made of up 10 blocks, which are designed to prepare students for residency training.
Block 1 - Step 3 CK Board Review
Block 2 - Surgery Sub-Internship
Block 3 - Research Elective
Block 4 - Emergency Medicine Clerkship
Block 5 - Body Imaging Elective
Block 6 - Flextime for Interviews/Electives
Block 7 - Away Elective
Block 8 - Global Health Elective
Block 9 - Intro to Internship
Block 10 - Simulation Elective
MD/PhD students who return to the third year of medical school must complete the same clinical requirements as other medical students during a period of two years that includes a significant amount of elective time. The clinical clerkships take advantage of ISMMS’s superb facility and the diversity of experience provided by our affiliated hospitals - e.g. Elmhurst, Bronx VA, North General, Queens General, St. Barnabas-NJ, Englewood, Cabrini, etc. - as well as in the community settings, physicians’ practice groups, and ISMMS’s own outpatient settings. That assignment is usually by lottery, but MD/PhD students who have a Program-related reason to request a specific rotation will be accommodated. Careful planning, in consultation with the clinical advisors and MD/PhD leadership, will afford students the smoothest transition back to clinical medicine. Some flexibility also exists so that elective time may be shifted to the beginning of an academic year to allow an MD/PhD student to finish up experimental or dissertation work. Thus, students may enter clerkships at various times until September. Many students will have completed the requirements without loss of any or a substantial amount of clinical elective time. They may, and often do, choose to spend some of that elective time in the laboratory, continuing offshoots of their projects. Other students have used a portion of their elective time during the final phase of the MSTP to explore research programs elsewhere, e.g., at the NIH. Students entering the fourth MD year should investigate the USMLE time limit set by some states for taking USMLE Step 2. Students should check the USMLE website (www.usmle.org) for further details including verification of USMLE registration. MD/PhD students should refer to the Medical Student Handbook for further details on the USMLE, information on clinical career choices and residency programs.
For more information, please refer to the Medical Student Handbook.