Medical & Graduate Training

The MD-PhD Program receives ~450 external applications for admission to the program annually, as well as applications from a small number of current 1st, 2nd or 3rd year medical students and 1st year PhD students who develop an interest in career trajectories that benefit from dual-degree training. These applicants are academically excellent and demonstrate significant experience and success in research. We have an increasing diversity of matriculated students along axes of race/ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and undergraduate institution, the result of intentional changes in recruiting and admissions practices over the past 5 years.

The table highlights the schools/departments that actively participate in MD-PhD student training as a result of ongoing communication and collaboration between Dr. Kazmierczak and her team of Associate Directors with the leadership of these departments and their many Directors of Graduate Studies (DGSs). The faculty within these departments and programs are committed to mentoring both PhD and MD-PhD predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and participate in a number of federally-funded institutional research training programs.

MD-PhD training is supported by multiple professional schools at Yale, as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). Our MD-PhD program has strong relationships with leaders and faculty in each school, allowing our students to take advantage of the strengths of our diverse faculty.

1) Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) Program at Yale School of Medicine. This PhD umbrella program encompasses 10 departments and the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP) based at three interconnected campuses: the Medical School, Science Hill and West Campus. Most current students have affiliated with a BBS department.

2) Yale School of Public Health. Around 10% of our current students have affiliated with PhD-granting departments in YSPH, which include Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases; Biostatistics; Chronic Disease Epidemiology; Environmental Health Sciences; Health Policy & Management.

3) Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Twelve current MD-PhD students have affiliated with the Biomedical Engineering program.

4) Yale GSAS. MD-PhD students have affiliated with the following “non-traditional” departments over the past decade: History of Science/History of Medicine, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Applied Mathematics, and Religious Studies.

5) Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Our LCME-accredited medical school opened in 1813, adopted its MD student thesis requirement in 1839, admitted its first female students in 1916, and currently provides preclinical and clinical training to all MD-PhD students at Yale. Each entering class of 104 medical students includes ~20 MD-PhD trainees, who participate in the 18-month pre-clinical curriculum and first two clerkship blocks (3 months each) side-by-side with their entering class.

1) Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). YNHH serves as the primary teaching hospital for MD-PhD students. This non-profit tertiary care center has 1,541 beds at two campuses in downtown New Haven, York Street and St. Raphael, and encompasses the Smilow Cancer Hospital at YNHH, YNHH Children’s Hospital and YNHH Psychiatric Hospital. 1.5 million outpatient encounters were recorded in 2017 at YNHH.

2) VA Connecticut Health Care System in West Haven provides a core training site (inpatient and outpatient) for YSM medical students, residents and fellows.

3) Yale School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Programs. Students in the PA program and the nursing school train with 1st year medical students as part of the Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience (ILCE). The ILCE teams utilize clinical sites at YNHH and at southeastern Connecticut sites that belong to the Yale Affiliated Hospital Program, namely Bridgeport, Danbury, Greenwich, Griffin, Norwalk, St. Mary’s and Waterbury Hospitals.

Yale School of Medicine is home to 1,617 ladder-track faculty, many of whom are committed to training pre- and postdoctoral scientists and physician-scientists. Our roster of 110 participating faculty on our MSTP training grant is composed primarily of trainers who are current or recent mentors of MD-PhD students. These individuals represent faculty at all ranks (12 Assistant, 28 Associate and 70 Full Professors); 32 (29%) are women. Physician-scientists are well-represented, with 15% MD and 25% MD-PhD faculty on our roster. Many (49 of the 110) have primary appointments in clinical departments and remain clinically active while directing productive and well-funded research programs. All MD-PhD faculty are committed to student mentoring and have completed an 8-hour mentor training curriculum modeled on the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) curriculum.