Tulane MPH tracks

[velouria]

Hi,

I'm planning to start at Tulane this fall and want to do MD/MPH. I know I'm interested in tropical medicine, and also international health.
Does any know or have experience with either of these 2 tracks at Tulane? Can someone explain the major differences/focuses and any possible advantages/disadvantages to either??

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[emily69]

Yeah, me too! I just got their flyer in the mail a couple of days ago and I've been thinking of what/how to write my personal statement.

Can someone give me some pointers?

 

[Samoa]

The way it was explained to me was that Tropical Medicine focuses on treating individual patients with tropical diseases, while international health focuses on improving overall population health in a sustainable manner by improving the health-related infrastructure of the country or region. If you watched ER tonight, it's the difference between what Carter is doing vs. what his girlfriend is doing.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Samoa
The way it was explained to me was that Tropical Medicine focuses on treating individual patients with tropical diseases,

explain to me then how the Tropical Medicine track can claim to be awarding a masters of *public* health (I assume the TM focus is an MPH program). My fear is that many of the Tulane programs are watered-down MPH programs (I don't know specifics about the Tulane programs, bear in mind). My school has a new-ish MD/MPH program where the default track is in "public health practice," which from what I've seen is a watered-down epi MPH degree - instead of a year of "real" epi and biostats, you do a semester of the lower-level epi class and a year of the lower-level biostats class (which you don't take sequentially - there is a semester between the courses).

I would highly recommend that anybody who is seriously interested in public health consider the depth that an MD/MPH program offers, and consider doing what the straight-up MPH students do. Perhaps a good question to ask is if a particular program would qualify you to enter an elite public health PhD program.


linky to my school's MD/MPH stuff: http://www.ahc.umn.edu/ahc_content/...ic_Health_Medicine.htm&pic=none&bold=Students

 

[Samoa]

The TM program is for clinicians.

As for it being watered down, the core requirements for MD/MPH and regular MPH are the same. There is a required "capstone" experience, and ALL students have the same options for completing it. The total number of credits required varies depending on your educational background, which makes COMPLETE sense to me.

I can understand your point about getting the "full" MPH experience. And MD/MPH students here do so. But really, people who already have held significant responsibilities in a health field don't want their time wasted on subjects they already understand.


By the way, the MPH (anywhere, on any track) is a preliminary degree toward the DrPH, not the PhD. You may be told otherwise as an attempt to lure you one place over another, but unless the degree is a "Master of Science" in something, it counts nada towards a PhD. Also, as far as I know, there is no true PhD in "Public Health," only in the individual disciplines of Public Health, such as Biostatistics, epidemiology, nutrition, etc. Which are a different thing entirely from what schools of public health offer. In addition, PhD programs allow entry with only a Bachelor's degree, and a joint MD/MPH would only add to the competitiveness of your application. Although they'd probably want a good reason why you've suddenly decided to change your focus so drastically.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Samoa


By the way, the MPH (anywhere, on any track) is a preliminary degree toward the DrPH, not the PhD. You may be told otherwise as an attempt to lure you one place over another, but unless the degree is a "Master of Science" in something, it counts nada towards a PhD. Also, as far as I know, there is no true PhD in "Public Health," only in the individual disciplines of Public Health, such as Biostatistics, epidemiology, nutrition, etc. Which are a different thing entirely from what schools of public health offer. In addition, PhD programs allow entry with only a Bachelor's degree, and a joint MD/MPH would only add to the competitiveness of your application. Although they'd probably want a good reason why you've suddenly decided to change your focus so drastically.

What your saying may be true at your school, but it certainly is not true at mine. At my school the MPH (as opposed to MS) is the preferred degree used to enter the PhD program (in Epi in particular). Furthermore, the MPH courses are the same courses the PhD studnents take. I know people who have gone from the Epi MPH program straight into the Epi PhD, simply choosing to do their thesis later and in a bigger fashion.

 

[Samoa]

Originally posted by Adcadet
What your saying may be true at your school, but it certainly is not true at mine. At my school the MPH (as opposed to MS) is the preferred degree used to enter the PhD program (in Epi in particular). Furthermore, the MPH courses are the same courses the PhD studnents take. I know people who have gone from the Epi MPH program straight into the Epi PhD, simply choosing to do their thesis later and in a bigger fashion.

I'm sure any school could choose to accept a professional degree in lieu of the MS, and may prefer that, depending on what they envision their students doing with the degree. Academia in general, though, doesn't recognize a professional masters degree as equivalent to the MS in any subject. So it sounds like your PhD in Epi is similar to the DrPH here.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by Samoa
So it sounds like your PhD in Epi is similar to the DrPH here.

I'm not sure how Minnesota's PhD in epi compares to any other program's DrPH (anybody got a link?), but I always got the impression that they were very comparable.