Outcomes

The mission of the Yale School of Medicine is “to educate and inspire scholars and future leaders who will advance the practice of medicine and the biomedical sciences.” The training of MD-PhD students has been central to this mission for nearly 50 years, with the establishment of the MD-PhD training program at Yale in 1969 that has graduated 348 students since 1973. Our goals go beyond collecting key outcomes information on all of our graduates, but to have them be an active part of our community of physician-scientists.

All MD-PhD students have passed the USMLE Step I and Step 2 CS/CK exams, which are a requirement for graduation with the MD degree. MD and MD-PhD students do equally well on the required C-OSCE exams taken in Year 2 and in Year 4 (after return to wards). MD-PhD graduates match to highly competitive residencies, and increasingly enter “research track” residencies as these become more common.

Yale does not admit MD or MD-PhD students to honor societies such as AOA or “rank” students.

The total time-to-degree averaged 8.2 y (median 8, range 6-11) for students who graduated between 2009 and 2018. This number is calculated by subtracting the year of matriculation from the year of graduation and adjusting by any formal leaves of absence (LOA) of 0.5y or longer. The time to degree is the same for students who join the program as medical students (average 8.1 y, median 8, range 6-9) or who belong to underrepresented groups (average 8.3 y, median 8, range 6-9).

Most 2009-2018 graduates are still in-training as residents (55), fellows (18), postdocs (7) or instructors (6), for a total of 86 (77%). Seven are physicians in clinical practice (6%), 17 are Assistant or Associate Professors (15%) and one is a Medical Director at a consulting firm. The figure shows the specialty choices of our graduates, including 2 who did not pursue residency training. 67 (60%) are in fields considered research-friendly (Medicine, Pediatrics, Pathology, Psychiatry, Neurology); however, the presence of many Yale physician-scientist MSTP faculty in Dermatology, Rad Oncology and Surgery makes these areas in which research-directed graduates train. Even Emergency Medicine (ER) is a research-intensive path for one graduate, who is in the Yale Emergency Scholar program. Ten graduates have received K awards (7 K08, one each K22, K23 and K99/R00—this last to a neurosurgeon), with an average time to award of 7.3 y (median 8, range 5-9). Click here to see a list of recent publications.

Our program offers grant proposal writing workshops three times per year around the NIH NRSA application deadlines. To measure efficacy, we examined how many graduates since 2009 have held individual NRSA fellowships, a predictor of subsequent academic success. Thirty-four graduates held F30s, and 2 held F31s (32% of 111). We continue to have good success in teaching students how to write proposals, as 24 of our current students have been awarded F30s and 3 have received F31s.

Most 2009-2018 graduates are still in training as residents (55), fellows (18), postdocs (7) or instructors (6), for a total of 86 (77%). Seven are physicians in clinical practice (6%), 17 are Assistant or Associate Professors (15%) and one is a Medical Director at a consulting firm. The specialties of graduates are shown below, including 2 who did not pursue residency training. 67 (60%) are in fields considered research-friendly (Medicine, Pediatrics, Pathology, Psychiatry, Neurology); however, the presence of many Yale physician-scientist MSTP faculty in Dermatology, Rad Oncology and Surgery makes these areas in which research-directed graduates train. Even Emergency Medicine (ER) is a research-intensive path for one graduate, who is in the Yale Emergency Scholar program. Ten graduates have received K awards (7 K08, one each K22, K23 and K99/R00—this last to a neurosurgeon), with an average time to award of 7.3 y (median 8, range 5-9). Four of the Asst/Assoc Professors hold NIH RPG awards (R01, R21, R34); we did not have data about foundation awards or other types of funding

As of October 2018, the MD-PhD Program at Yale had 348 graduates spanning the years 1973-2018; 35% (n=121) are women and 65% (n=227) are men. Our alumni gender distribution is similar to the percentages reported for MD-PhD programs nationwide (as reported in the AAMC National MD-PhD Outcomes Study) where women make up 27% of MD-PhD graduates between 1974 and 2014. The gender distribution of all current students in the program (134 students total, as of 2018) is 48% (n=64) women and 52% (n=70) men (data not shown).

We have used a combination of survey data and online data searches to examine the career outcomes of our alumni. Shown in the figure to the right, 46% of our alumni are in academia, defined as any post-secondary academic institution where training occurs, including colleges, universities, some medical centers, or free-standing research institutions. These included instructors and non-ladder-track faculty, as well as Assistant, Associate and full Professors (distribution of ranks shown below). 24% of all graduates are still in training (includes residency, fellowship, postdoctoral research training). 15% of alumni are in clinical practice (defined as any organization, e.g., hospital, clinic, private practice, where the primary responsibility is providing healthcare); 8% work in a for-profit setting (defined as any organization that operates to make a profit, including industry and consulting); 2% are employed in a government organization (i.e., operated by federal, state, local or foreign governments); 1% work in non-profits, and 4% include those who are on an extended leave of absence from the workforce, whose employment status is unknown, or deceased.

161 of our 348 alumni (46%) who graduated between 1973 and 2018 are employed in academia, defined as any post-secondary academic institution where training occurs, including colleges, universities, some medical centers, or free-standing research institutions. These include instructors and non-ladder-track faculty, as well as Assistant, Associate and full Professors.