Investigative Medicine Program

The Investigative Medicine Program (IMP) is an innovative training program in clinical and translational investigation for physicians that leads to a Ph.D. degree in Investigative Medicine awarded from the Yale Graduate school of Arts and Sciences. The goal of the graduate program is to provide the training required to develop a broad knowledge base, analytical skills, creative thinking, and the hands-on experience demanded of clinical and translational researchers devoted to either laboratory-based or clinically based patient-oriented investigation. Admission to the IMP is competitive, across multiple disciplines (clinical subspecialties), with focus on patient- or community-oriented or basic (translational) laboratory research.

Students are provided with individualized research training encompassing both formal coursework and completion of a PhD thesis under the supervision and mentorship of a graduate school faculty member and a thesis committee comprised of clinical and graduate school faculty. Students undertake thesis work in a variety of disciplines ranging from evaluating risk factors and interventions for disease using modern concepts in quantitative methods and clinical study design to exploring the molecular basis of disease in the laboratory.

Requirements for the Ph.D. degree are completion of a didactic curriculum of required and elective courses and comprehensive oral and written examinations and a research project resulting in a dissertation under the guidance of a mentor and a qualifying and thesis committee. Students should be able to obtain a Ph.D. degree in a timeframe not substantially different from that required for research training in most medical subspecialties. It is expected that most students will complete the program in 3-4 years.