Best of both worlds: Rice collaborates with Baylor to offer Medical Scientist Training Program

Best of both worlds
Rice collaborates with Baylor to offer Medical Scientist Training Program

BY DAWN DORSEY
Special to the Rice News

Emmanuel Chang sees a future as a physician and scientist specializing in ophthalmology, probably in an academic medical-center setting. For him and a select group of similarly motivated students, a medical-doctoral joint degree program offered in conjunction with Rice’s Department of Bioengineering and Baylor College of Medicine offers the best of both worlds.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Emmanuel Chang, a student in the medical-doctoral joint degree program, works in a lab at Rice University. Chang said the dual degree offered by the Medical Scientist Training Program will position him to help people around the world.

Chang, who studied biomedical and electrical engineering as an undergraduate, was attracted to the Medical Scientist Training Program for the opportunity to learn in two world-class institutions and the chance to combine laboratory research with hands-on healing.

“It is very important to me to be able to help others,” he said. “I think I can really make a difference by applying my research interests in nanotechnology and imaging to ophthalmology, and I’m especially interested in pediatrics.”

It’s a rigorous program, and students are usually in their mid-30s before they enter the professional world. But those holding dual degrees are rare — only about 10 percent of the faculty at Baylor — and in demand for clinical medicine, research and teaching.

“These students are highly sought after, as you can imagine,” said Kathy Crawford, director of administrative operations for the Baylor program. “Really, they have their pick of anywhere they want to go.”

The program, which began almost 30 years ago, admits only a small percentage of applicants. Demand is growing, and in just four years, the number of students pursuing their doctorate in bioengineering has grown from seven to 18.

“These are absolutely phenomenal students,” saidRebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice. “They are academically talented, of course, but they’re also compassionate and inventive. Not only do they want to participate in patient care, they want to make that care better.”

During the first 24 months of the program, students attend medical school at Baylor, completing basic science courses and some clinical rotations. Then they complete doctoral work at Rice. Finally, they return to Baylor for about a year to finish clinical work and receive their medical degree. Some stop there, but most go on to another three to five years of residency, perhaps followed by a fellowship.

Programs of this type are few, Crawford said. Within that elite group, the Rice-Baylor partnership is one of the premier options, in part due to the close collaborative relationship between the two institutions.

Chang, a student working in the lab of Rebekah Drezek, the Stanley C. Moore Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and in Electrical and Computer Engineering, said the way the program is organized adds to its advantages.

“You actually get clinical experience before working on your Ph.D., unlike most schools where you sit in a classroom for two years with no patient contact and then go to get your doctorate,” he said. “With no patient contact for five years, it’s hard to keep up your motivation.”

Geography also plays a part in the program’s quality and its attraction to bioengineering students, Chang said.

“There are very few bioengineering M.D./Ph.D. programs because most medical schools don’t have local access to a high-quality engineering program like the one at Rice,” he said. “Because the two institutions are so close and collaborate so well, the program is quite interdisciplinary. Also, Rice’s bioengineering department has a huge clinical focus.”

Richards-Kortum said the number of bioengineering programs across the country is growing, creating a larger pool of students with engineering backgrounds. She predicts the interest in medical-doctoral joint degree programs will grow as health care continues to become increasingly technology-focused. And Rice increasingly will stress bench-to-bedside research, she said.

“A big focus of the engineering department over the next five years will be translational research,” Richards-Kortum said. “Students in this program are at the forefront of understanding the limits of clinical medicine, but at the same time they are able to design technology to eliminate the problems.”

Chang said the dual degree will position him perfectly for his goal: helping people around the world.

“Academics tend to pursue things that are interesting to them,” he said. “However, their research may not always result in clinical significance for patient management. Having an M.D. helps you understand the clinical standards of care and directs your focus toward clinical issues at the bedside. On the flip side, an M.D. with a Ph.D. better realizes what research tools are available.”