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This chapter covers the MD/PhD Program. Students can find the following information in this section.
Complete MSTP graduation survey
Complete a minimum of 72 graduate credits with an average grade of B or better in all required core courses (i.e., Biostatistics and Core) and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Successfully submit and defend a Thesis Proposal
Write an original dissertation that is accepted by the student’s Thesis Committee and successfully defend the dissertation orally in front of a panel of experts.
Deposit dissertation using ProQuest Complete
Submit all required forms, including student checkout forms for the Graduate School, Medical School, and the institution.
Complete all medical school courses and clerkships with a passing grade.
Successfully complete a total of 14 weeks of elective credit
Take and pass USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK
Complete a scholarly product
Complete all assigned evaluations for all courses and clerkships
Complete required core procedures
Complete annual student survey in Year 4
Complete the graduation checklist
Please refer to the PhD Chapter for standards for maintaining satisfactory progress. Please refer the Department of Medical Education’s policy on satisfactory academic progress.
To maintain satisfactory progress, MD/PhD students must comply with those requirements detailed for the PhD Program and:
Complete USMLE Step I by the end of the second MD year and USMLE Step II at the end of the third MD year (or make specific, approved plans for different timing)
Successfully reach and pass each of the MD/PhD Program Milestones by the required deadlines (see details in section on Program Milestones), and submit registration and documentation memos on time
Complete the Thesis Proposal Exam by the end of the 6th semester in the program
Enroll and actively participate in the formal Clinical Refresher course during the spring of the final year of the PhD phase
Complete all requirements for both the MD and PhD degrees within the Program time limits, including no more than five years between the Thesis Proposal and the Defense
The MD/PhD Program at ISMMS offers a select group of students the training required to pursue leadership opportunities in academic investigative medicine. The program offers each student diverse opportunities in an outstanding research environment that is integrated with a well-rounded, nationally acclaimed medical education. Our program has been continuously funded by the NIH’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) since 1977.
Program Website: https://icahn.mssm.edu/education/dual-specialty/md-phd
Program Contact
Bianca Taylor, MD/PhD Program Manager
Email: bianca.taylor-starobin@mssm.edu
The mission of the MD/PhD program or Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) is to educate a diverse cadre of future physician-scientists in a rigorous, integrated dual degree program that prepares them to contribute to the improvement of human health through careers in a variety of clinical specialties and biomedical research environments.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion provides overarching guidance to the MD/PhD program. As an ISMMS academic program, the MD/PhD program recognizes that diversity drives excellence. Our program supports trainees through individualized paths in careers as physician scientists and values the unique characteristics and career paths of each student from recruitment through the student life cycle through graduation. Recruitment and admissions practices are governed by a holistic approach to each applicant as a means to foster a vibrant student body with different life experiences and biomedical expertise and interest as defined in our institutional mission and diversity statement. We commit to providing MD/PhD students with holistic student support to cultivate an inclusive, thriving, and supportive environment that engages, embraces, and values all of our students, faculty, and staff who contribute to building a diverse physician scientist workforce.
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.
Students are required to meet key program milestones, register for all required courses, and complete all general program requirements to ensure timely completion of the degree. The requirements include MD curricular requirements, PhD curricular requirements and MSTP-specific course requirements.
The integrated MD/PhD curriculum begins during the fall of the first year with a course called Biomedical Science for MD/PhDs. This course builds on the first year of medical school curriculum using lectures, tutorials, and graduate-level journal clubs—and continues into the spring semester. During this time, students will also take our Art and Science of Medicine course, which includes central patient care experience, and Longitudinal Clinical Experience.
During the PhD portion of MD/PhD training, students will pursue advanced courses that match their training area and interests. Advanced coursework is selected in consultation with and with approval by their Multidisciplinary Training Area (MTA) Director.
In the fall of the third year in the program (1st year in the PhD-phase), students will work with their thesis advisor to develop a thesis proposal. After developing the proposal, students will sit for an examination to defend this proposal which can then be submitted for an NIH F30/31 application.
While in the PhD portion of the program, MD/PhD will be able to maintain their clinical skills through our Clinical Exposure course. For this course, students will perform three rotations through any of the clinical disciplines from the last two years of medical school, such as medicine, neurosurgery, pediatrics, and psychiatry. This will help students refresh and enhance their patient interviewing, physical exam, and presentation skills.
During your PhD years, MD/PhD students may also choose to maintain and hone their clinical skills through the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP). EHHOP is a free, student-run clinic for uninsured patients in East Harlem, sponsored by the Mount Sinai Health System. Every Saturday, volunteer medical students function as primary care providers under the supervision of volunteer attending physicians. EHHOP provides an outstanding opportunity for medical students to “learn by doing” in a supportive, educational environment. MD/PhD students in their PhD phase have long played an important role at EHHOP. Recently, a formal Physician Scientist Track (PST) has been established for MD/PhD students within EHHOP, providing our MD/PhD students with the clinical information, skills, and confidence they need to excel during their clerkships.
The MD/PhD program offers an eight-week MD/PhD Clinical Refresher course, designed to help facilitate the transition from PhD work to clinical practice. In addition, InFocus5 (formerly Clinical Skills Week) will help orient students to the policies and procedures of clerkship rotations. As a third-year medical student, training will focus on clinical rotations combined with 10 weeks of elective career exploration or additional research time.
Students will apply and interview for residency programs during the fourth and final year. During this year students will receive ample elective time and the ability to design a course tailored to student interests and professional goals. This flexibility, along with rotations at potential residency sites, scholarly work at other institutions, and longitudinal clinical experiences will give MD/PhD students the experience and training needed to succeed as a resident.
Students who do not meet program deadlines will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including academic probation and expulsion. The maximum time limit for completing all PhD degree requirements is seven years after matriculation. The dissertation advisor must petition the Dean of the Graduate School in writing for permission to extend their student status in the PhD-phase and the MD/PhD Program. Students can find a detailed roadmap of all essential milestones for the MD/PhD program here.
The MD/PhD program offers tremendous flexibility, when it comes to the timeline students follow for their training. The traditional path that the majority of students take is to complete their first and second years of medical school (Preclinical), followed by their four-year PhD (extenuating circumstances can be observed by program leadership to elongate the duration of the PhD), and lastly the final two years of medical school (Clinical). This is the designated, traditional “2-4-2” path. Alternatives to this timeline are possible, such as a “1-4-3” or “3-4-1” timeline, but permission must be granted by the program leadership.
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.
The MSTP leadership aims to provide holistic support and enrichment in formal and an informal capacity for the duration of a student’s time in the Program. Also available to students are the Physician-Scientist Career Advisors, and peer networks, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Office of Well-Being and Resilience.
Physician Scientist Career Advisors are individuals who have completed training as MDs and MD/PhDs who are engaged in physician scientist careers and can provide trainees with guidance about the experiences as a physician scientist. Students are invited to contact these individuals at various states during their trainees to see advice or guidance in career development.
The Individual Development Plan is an instrument that is intended for MD/PhD students to track their progress through the program, to consider their goals and career development, and to provide information to the MSTP leadership to help advise through various phases of the program. The IDP will be completed annually and due on March 1 of each year. It is an electronic form that uses branched logic to tailor the questions and guide to the phase of the program. Upon completion of the form, students will receive a report which summarizes their answers and can be shared with the advisor/mentors of their choosing.
Students should think about their current stage in training and their goals for advancing to the next phases, thoughts for the upcoming year, and long term goals. This is a tool to help students identify skills, mentors, and approaches to help them accomplish their goals. This tool can be used to help students in any way that they think it can be best leveraged; this includes discussion with the mentor, advisor, or other designated individuals with whom they consult for academic and professional growth. The information entered into the IDP will be populated into a report that will be returned to the student in a report that can be shared for discussion.
The choice of a dissertation advisor and MTA is a major focus of the first two years of the Program. The second year culminates with the student being accepted into the laboratory of a Graduate Faculty member for pursuit of the dissertation work. Faculty mentors of rotation students are urged to present a realistic picture of the tone of the laboratory, the nature of the ongoing projects, how work is assigned or monitored, and any general history or policies with respect to meetings, publications/authorship, weekly journal clubs and laboratory meetings, and direct contact to be expected with the laboratory leader. A choice of dissertation advisor is usually, but not always, consonant with the MTA choice.
By March 1 in the second year/ fourth semester in the MD/PhD program, each student is encouraged to submit the Dissertation Advisor/MTA Declaration Form. However, the deadline for submission is June 30. At this time, the student must also select at least three members for an Advisory Committee. Committee members should be selected because of their ability to provide scientific and/or technical support for the dissertation project. Advisory Committee members must be members of the Graduate Faculty. Two Advisory Committee members are experts in the area of the student’s research; a third member must be from a related field but need not be expert in the student’s area of research. MD/PhD students are encouraged to add a clinical/translational (C/T) investigator, who need not be a member of the Graduate Faculty, to their Advisory Committee to provide feedback about the C/T impact of their research. The Dissertation Advisor/MTA Declaration form should be submitted to the Graduate School Office with all the required signatures as soon as possible, but no later than June 30.
Please refer to the PhD Chapter for information on changing dissertation advisors, guidelines for when an advisor relocates.
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 for more information on laboratory rotations.
Please refer to the 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 for more information on course requirements.
MSTP milestones by phase:
MSTP milestones by year:
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 PhD Chapter and the for information on the thesis advisory committee, thesis proposal, written document, oral presentation, thesis proposal committee, deadline, and advancement to candidacy.
MD/PhD students are strongly encouraged to schedule their defense by April 1, but no later than May 1 to allow for a smooth transition back to medical school. Please refer to the for information on the dissertation, published manuscript, dissertation committee, defense, and seminar.
MD/PhD students should read the full , which can be found on the . In short, MD/PhD students should do the following:
In one email, submit a signed voting form to the Registrar team, Kristy DiPalma, and Hoiyan “Shirley” Chan, and the MD/PhD Program Manager (, , ).
Follow the remaining instructions on the Dissertation Defense Checklist and follow the for depositing the dissertation, with the exception of the checkout form, which is completed at the end of the program. These documents can also be found here -
Contact the MD/PhD Program Manager for the signature of the Graduate School Dean, which is needed on the approval page in your dissertation.
Deposit your dissertation using ProQuest.
For degree conferral and to receive the degree at graduation, deposit the thesis no later than April 15 for the May conferral date (This date is relevant only if the student wishes to receive the PhD degree that year, instead of at the completion of the entire MD/PhD program. The vast majority of MD/PhD students wait to receive both degrees at the end of the program). Regardless of when the student plans to participate in graduation, please send the Registrar/Kristy DiPalma the following:
CV
and send the certificate to Kristy/Registrar
Email Kristy/Registrar once the thesis has been deposited and accepted by ProQuest, so she may confer the PhD degree
The dissertation must be both defended and deposited by June 15 in order to return to MD Year 3. The student must also deposit by June 15 (the summer prior to MSPE release) in order for MSPE to indicate one's name as “Dr.”
If after degree conferral the student would like to add PhD to one's Mount Sinai ID, please email the Program Manager with this request.
If an MD/PhD student fails to deposit their dissertation by the end of their seventh year in the program (fifth year in the PhD-phase), their dissertation advisor must petition the Dean of the Graduate School in writing for permission to extend their student status. The petition must include a timetable for completing the dissertation and must also be signed by the student.
Please refer to the for information on degree award date and revision timeline.
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.