New Director
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Stephen I. Hsu, M.D., Ph.D. - new Director of M.D./Ph.D. Program at COM We welcome Stephen I. Hsu, M.D., Ph.D. as the new Director of our M.D./Ph.D. Program. Dr. Hsu was a member of the faculty of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School before joining us in July as the R. Glenn Davis Associate Professor of Clinical and Translational Medicine in the Division of Nephrology, Hypertension & Renal Transplantation, in the Department of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized multi-disciplinary clinician/scientist whose interests include cell cycle regulation, nephrogenomics/nephroproteomics, and clinical trials of novel investigational agents. Dr. Hsu is also involved in planning of our Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA) Training Program application. |
The Program
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Welcome to the MD/PhD program at the University of Florida. If you are considering applying to the program, we recommend that you to browse this material and plan a visit to our campus. The strength of our program is our people - our students, faculty and staff - and we encourage you to meet with them when you visit and get their perspectives on the training and research opportunities available here. The MD/PhD program trains physician-scientists for a career in academic medicine, and we expect our MD/PhD students to be the future faculty at academic medical centers. We welcome you, therefore, as future colleagues. |
| The MD/PhD program is currently a traditional program in which MD/PhD students spend the first two years of medical school taking the same basic science classes as other medical students. In addition, during the first year MD/PhD students interview potential research mentors and select a thesis project. During the third year, students initiate their doctoral dissertation research. After completing their dissertation research, students return to medical school for completion of their clinical training. The MD/PhD program is being revised during the 2007-08 academic year as an integral part of the Clinical and Translation Science research program at the University of Florida. Details about the new format of the MD/PhD program are expected to be available later this Fall. | |
Transitions
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MD/PhD students generally face two difficult transitions. The first is when they begin graduate training after the first two years of basic science work. The second comes when they return to medical school after their dissertation is completed. We try to ease these passages by providing a clinical advisor for each MD/PhD student during the PhD training period. These clinical faculty help students maintain patient skills (by attending ward rounds and clinics) and by discussing the clinical applications of their doctoral research. We try to help students hit the ground running with respect to their graduate research projects by arranging research opportunities in the summers before and after the first year of medical school. Students are also encouraged to attend lab meetings of prospective mentors and to design their research projects before actually entering the lab. |
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