MD Master of Health Science Application Instructions

Yale School of Medicine has established a joint degree, the MD- Master of Health Science (MD-MHS) degree, for students completing a competitively funded full fifth year of research and other requirements. This program was approved by the Yale Corporation in January 2006.

There are two pathways to the MD-MHS degree for medical students. These are a clinical research pathway and a laboratory/translational pathway. The MD-MHS degree is centered around a fifth pull-out year supported by a fully-funded one-year medical student research fellowship at Yale.

NOTE: For students completing a joint MD-MHS, Step 1 and Step 2 CK must be taken by June 30 of each academic year. In the event that a student takes the exam by this deadline but subsequently receives a non-passing score, they will be administratively withdrawn due to being ineligible.

April 10, 2023: deadline for all MD-MHS applications to OSR

Early May: Decisions sent to all MD-MHS applicants.

July 1: Program begins

Please refer to the MD Thesis Deadlines here.

Prior to accessing the application, you should review the instructions provided below. This step will help you compile the information and documents required to complete the online application.

You will need the following documents and information:

• Your CV (PDF)
• Four letters of approval/support (4 PDFs) that will be uploaded into the application
  • Approval by your Departmental Thesis Chair. Upload the Thesis Chair’s approval letter or email correspondence.
  • A letter of support from your MHS Advisor, a full-time Yale School of Medicine (YSM) faculty member, stating that they endorse your MHS application and will participate in the 2-3 required meetings.
  • Letters of support from your other two MD-MHS committee members, stating that they endorse your MHS application and will participate in the 2-3 required meetings.
• Contact information for all members of your MD-MHS Thesis Committee (including, full professional title, degree(s), department, email address, and an uploaded approval letter or email correspondence)
• The title of your proposed research project.
• A description of your proposed research project – this should be the project proposal submitted for your One Year Fellowship funding application. (PDF)

NOTE: In addition to the MD-MHS Advisor, one committee member should be focused in either translational or laboratory research if your research is clinical, or translational or clinical if your research is laboratory based. The other should be from an area related to your work, as recommended by your MD-MHS Advisor and/or department thesis chair. At least one committee member must be from a department or section external to that of your MD-MHS Advisor. This committee will meet 2 - 3 during the pull-out research year and will be responsible for approving the MD-MHS thesis in partial fulfillment of YSM graduation requirements.

Listed below are the required courses for both the Clinical Research pathway and the Laboratory/Translational pathway. Please note that students must attend at least 80% of each required course in the chosen pathway to meet the requirement for the MHS degree. These courses are in-person and must be taken during the 5th pullout year.

1. Clinical Research Pathway required courses
   1. IMED 645: Introduction to Biostatistics (2 week summer course )
   2. IMED 625 Principles of Clinical Research (2 week summer course )
   3. Sect Ed 104 Applied Principles of Research (APR) or Applied Principles of Clinical Research (APCR) (10 week summer course)
   4. Sect Ed 501 Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) (academic year course, 6 sessions of approximately 2 hours each) OR IMED 630: Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research (Fall semester, weekly sessions of 1.5 hours each).
   5. An elective course may be added if desired
2. Laboratory/Translational Research Pathway required courses
   
   1. IMED 645: Introduction to Biostatistics (2 week summer course in July)
   2. Sect Ed 104: Applied Principles of Research (APR) (10 week summer course)
   3. Sect Ed501 Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) (academic year course, 6 sessions of approximately 2 hours each) OR IMED 630: Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research (Fall semester, weekly sessions of 1.5 hours each).
   4. An elective course may be added if desired