The MD/PhD Program at the University of Maryland (UM) was established in 1982 and over the years has produced a cohort of successful physician scientists. The mission of the UM program is to provide outstanding aspiring medical scientists with superior scientific and medical training so that they will have productive careers in biomedical research and clinical medicine. The focused goals of the MD/PhD Program are: (1) to recruit students with strong scientific backgrounds and a commitment to clinical care;(2) to provide a rigorous, yet flexible, program that includes training in independent research and clinical practice;(3) to provide guidance so that students formulate long-term career plans and acquire the scientific and clinical credentials necessary for competitive postgraduate training. The training plan builds on the curricula of the medical and graduate schools and includes a range of activities and courses that facilitate the integration of the basic and clinical sciences. These MD/PhD-specific activities include: (1) Graduate program orientations;(2) Molecules to Medicine journal club;(3) Physician Scientist Seminars;(4) Longitudinal Clinical Rotation during graduate school;(5) Physician Scientist Research Elective in Medical School;(6) MD/PhD Program Retreat;(7) MD/PhD endowed lecture. Thus our program ensures the MD/PhD students are not merely MD students with PhD training. Over the past seven years the UM MD/PhD Program has made major strides that improve its quality including: (1) a 400% increase in institutional support;(2) a 40% increase in depth of applicant pool;(3) increase in underrepresented minority population to 24% of program;(4) reduction in clinical requirements to enhance flexibility. At the same time the graduate programs have been completely reorganized and the school of medicine has seen remarkable growth in the biomedical research enterprise. The success of these improvements is manifest in the quality of matriculating students, the productivity of our researchers, and the impressive list of residency positions of our seniors. Thus graduates of this program are superbly prepared to capitalize on the opportunities and meet the challenges in the investigation of human diseases.
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