How will COVID-19 affect research in med school

[hydrophilicmed]

In light of recent events a lot of people have been wondering what's going to happen regarding the med school application process and medical school admissions overall. It's been speculated that med schools will become more competitive because of the large volume of people that will apply in the future. This will most likely be because of the job security that becoming a doctor will provide and because I do believe that this crisis will inspire a lot of people to go into medicine.

Judging by how some of the general public are reacting to this outbreak and how the government is dealing with it thus far, I can only predict that things will unfortunately get really, really, reeeeeeeally bad (spring break yeah!!!!). I do believe we will get ahead of this thing though. My question of course is how will research in med school be affected by COVID-19? Will more med schools start putting emphasis on research during the application process? Will more med schools or at least residencies (especially the research driven ones) start focusing on producing more physician scientists (not the 8 year ones)? Obviously we need a lot more physician scientists, but not a lot of people are really willing to go the MD PhD route considering the time it takes to complete these programs and stuff like that. Will a lot more schools try to find a compromise by trying to get a lot more physicians into research?

No quoting in case this is a stupid question.

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[Cornfed101]

Not a stupid question, but I don’t think COVID-19 will change how medical schools view research. Why do you think it would? We always need physician scientists, but just because there is a higher demand now doesn’t mean there is always a super high demand.

 

[hydrophilicmed]

Not a stupid question, but I don’t think COVID-19 will change how medical schools view research. Why do you think it would? We always need physician scientists, but just because there is a higher demand now doesn’t mean there is always a super high demand.

I don't know. Research seems kind of vital in understanding COVID-19. We still haven't really found adequate treatment for it. I figured this is where physician scientists seem to be needed. It does seem like we have been dealing with a lot of pandemics lately. Swine flu, Ebola, now COVID-19. It all kinda seems like a lot.

 

[Zen Arcade]

As far as people going into research, I don’t think supply is really the issue... it’s funding. There’s a ton of people who would love to run a lab, but the limited amount of federal funding creates a bottleneck where only top candidates secure the academic positions. You should absolutely do MD PhD if you’re passionate about it, and going this route gives you much more job stability than normal PhD (because you usually work in the clinic on the side), but there’s not going to be a huge wealth of physician scientist positions opening up anytime soon until congress increases the NIH budget. I wish you were right and people would funnel more money into preventative medicine and basic sciences. Either way, medical school is primarily focused on training clinicians, not necessarily career scientists. Research will continue to be important for top schools, but of limited value to mid-lower tier schools.

 

[Goro]

In light of recent events a lot of people have been wondering what's going to happen regarding the med school application process and medical school admissions overall. It's been speculated that med schools will become more competitive because of the large volume of people that will apply in the future. This will most likely be because of the job security that becoming a doctor will provide and because I do believe that this crisis will inspire a lot of people to go into medicine.

Judging by how some of the general public are reacting to this outbreak and how the government is dealing with it thus far, I can only predict that things will unfortunately get really, really, reeeeeeeally bad (spring break yeah!!!!). I do believe we will get ahead of this thing though. My question of course is how will research in med school be affected by COVID-19? Will more med schools start putting emphasis on research during the application process? Will more med schools or at least residencies (especially the research driven ones) start focusing on producing more physician scientists (not the 8 year ones)? Obviously we need a lot more physician scientists, but not a lot of people are really willing to go the MD PhD route considering the time it takes to complete these programs and stuff like that. Will a lot more schools try to find a compromise by trying to get a lot more physicians into research?

No quoting in case this is a stupid question.

Not likely. Deans and Department Chairs are the ones who recruit faculty researchers. I doubt that they'll turn on a dime and suddenly fall in love with Infectious Disease. In fact, I don't recall a massive change in research outlook or direction after the AIDS epidemic. HIV/AIDS just became yet one more research venue (at select places), like cancer and aging.

Then NIH also has to cough up more money for the grants. And Congress has to get more money to NIH.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

In light of recent events a lot of people have been wondering what's going to happen regarding the med school application process and medical school admissions overall. It's been speculated that med schools will become more competitive because of the large volume of people that will apply in the future. This will most likely be because of the job security that becoming a doctor will provide and because I do believe that this crisis will inspire a lot of people to go into medicine.

It's not really that stupid of a question, but the speculation you cite has always been attached to physicians and health care providers. There's job security with being a doctor...

That's a lie. Being a physician in our modern American health care system is working for a health care system. People get fired or leave frequently for more intellectually challenging career paths or opportunities. The only way you have job security is if you can run a solo practice, and physicians haven't been able to do that and escape the grips of insurance since the mid-1950's (I think). It is said that half of all hospital workers say they have suffered burnout, and the COVID-19 pandemic is only going to make that much worse.

My question of course is how will research in med school be affected by COVID-19? Will more med schools start putting emphasis on research during the application process? Will more med schools or at least residencies (especially the research driven ones) start focusing on producing more physician scientists (not the 8 year ones)? Obviously we need a lot more physician scientists, but not a lot of people are really willing to go the MD PhD route considering the time it takes to complete these programs and stuff like that. Will a lot more schools try to find a compromise by trying to get a lot more physicians into research?

The short-term right now: consolidation of research efforts to the virus and therapeutic/diagnostic solutions. Friends I know who work for or contract for NIH got word that a lot of their labs are shutting down so that the federal government effort on COVID-19 can be focused and consolidated. Yes, NIH government researchers are effectively being furloughed like in the government shutdown of last year.

The impending health care workforce shortage and maldistribution (too few in underserved or underresourced areas or populations) is much more critical a factor. They're still trying to put pressure for more med school graduates even though the number of residency slots hasn't dramatically increased. COVID-19 isn't going to change this though it may highlight the imperative to support a flexible and educated public health infrastructure including primary care physicians and workers. MD/PhD...??? Not unless NIH gets a huge boost in training grant funds that is sustainable for 10+ years. And I mean all training grants and not just MSTP.