Medical Scientist Training Program

Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTP) are extremely competitive combined M.D. and Ph.D. graduate degree (MD/PhD) programs offered by a small number of United States medical schools with financial support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), in recognition of the increasing need for scientists to bridge the technical gap between laboratory discoveries and producing effective treatments for the patient. There are currently 40 individual MSTPs at 45 participating institutions with a total of 933 trainees in all stages of the programs. MSTPs exist only at the most prominent research universities, and, as of 2011, all top 20 medical school as ranked by the US News and Report had a MSTP. The most recent MSTP grant was awarded to The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2011.

Certain MSTPs offer concurrent training in clinical research, e.g. the MSCI (Master of Science in Clinical Investigation) program at Northwestern University in downtown Chicago.

Due to federal regulations, the program grants provided by the NIH are restricted to U.S. citizens or legalized nationals. However many medical schools have MD/PhD programs that are not supported by the NIH but offer similar training opportunities and grant money. Also, many MST programs offer non-MSTP grant funded positions, allowing for non-citizens and non-legalized nationals to be accepted into the MD/PhD program at that particular school.

History

The program has its origins in the non-NIH funded MD/PhD training offered at the nation's research-centric medical schools. The first true dual degree program began at Case Western Reserve University in 1956. Other prominent medical schools quickly followed this example and developed explicit MD/PhD training structures. Recognizing the significance of these developments, the NIH began to fund a select few medical schools to further develop and expand their programs. The decades that followed saw significant expansion in the monetary value of the grant awards and the number of schools funded.

Admissions

Admission to MSTPs is the most competitive of all graduate medical education programs, with only 170 NIH-funded positions available nationwide each year in addition to institutionally-funded positions for 1,779 applicants (a 9.6% acceptance rate). In comparison MD-only programs had 42,742 applicants for 18,665 positions (a 44% acceptance rate). Applicants must have strong MCAT scores and GPAs to be considered for positions in MST programs. Reflecting this fact, from 2008 to 2010 the average GPA and MCAT for matriculates to MSTPs was 3.76 and 34.5, respectively. MSTP applicants will often have strong research experience as well. Interviews at MSTPs tend to focus on the applicant's past experiences in scientific research. These may include short research talks or presentations followed by rigorous questioning by an interviewer or interviewing committee. At some MSTPs, applicants may also have to interview with the MD-only program.

Financial Support

MSTP matriculates receive substantial financial awards that make them financially competitive to their MD-only counterparts even with the longer training periods. These allowances cover all tuition expenses, provide travel and supply allowances, and accommodate living expenses through an annual stipend (ranging from $22,000 to $32,000). Due to these monetary grants, MSTP trainees often graduate with little to no debt.

Career Path

The vast majority (over 80%) of MD/PhD graduates eventually choose to enter academia, government, or industry where medical research is a central component of their duties. According to a FASEB study conducted in 2000, graduates of NIH-funded MSTPs make up just 2.5% of medical school graduates each year, but after graduation, account for about one third of all NIH research grants awarded to physicians. Many MSTP graduates also practice clinical medicine in their field of expertise.

Non-MSTP MD/PhD and DO/PhD programs

A number of medical and osteopathic schools without funded NIH MSTP grant slots maintain their own non-MSTP MD/PhD or DO/PhD combined degree programs, sometimes offering full or partial student financial support funded by the schools themselves. Currently 75 institutions provide a means for non-MSTP MD/PhD training. There are also 7 DO/PhD programs in the country.

Allied-Institution programs

Additionally, several medical schools allow for the PhD portion of the MSTP to be completed at an allied institution, where research in specific fields may be stronger than at the home institution. Such alliances include:

• The University of California, San Diego and the Salk Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology
• The University of Colorado, Denver, the The University of Colorado at Boulder, and National Jewish Health
• Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• The Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program (Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University)
• The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University [1]
• The University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley
• Stony Brook University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory
• The University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine and the California Institute of Technology
• The Emory University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
• SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
• Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic.
• The Indiana University School of Medicine and Purdue University
• The Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of Alabama at Birmingham MSTP, and other participating MSTPs allow students that have also been accepted into the Graduate Partnership Program of the NIH to complete their thesis work through this program, typically at the NIH with two years at the University of Cambridge (Health Sciences) or the University of Oxford (Biomedical Sciences) for those also in the NIH OxCam Partnership.

External links

• NIH Overview
• American Physician Scientists Association
• List of NIH MSTPs
• Guidebook for prospective MSTP or MD/PhD students written by students, but with no citations.
• The M.D./Ph.D.: An Academic Path to a Career as a Physician-Scientist
• Michigan State University DO/PhD program

Other Wiki Links

American Physician Scientists Association