Clinician scientist?

Hi all, I am an international student who is interested in pursuing a medical degree in uk because it offers the option of an intercalated degree. I feel this is beneficial for me as i aspire to be a clinician scientist to marry both traditional practice and research. I plan to do 50-50 of each. However, I have some doubts and I would appreciate if you guys can help me with them.
1. Are unis receptive to students getting an mbbs and doing clinical research?
2. Should I include the fact that I'd like to pursue the path of a clinician scientist in my ps?
3. Which unis favour students with research background(if any) and which are well known for research?
Thank you so much for the help :smile:

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Reply 1

purplefrog

I'm sure all universities are keen to have their medical students go on and contribute to research as part of their career, so stating you wish to do so shouldn't be a problem. Just be ready to justify yourself if they ask you "why not study a science degree then?"

Intercalating a BSc in a scientific subject will definitely help you get your foot into research. There programmes ant Oxford and UCL (and I'm sure other unis too) where you can do an MB PhD. So you get to graduate with a medicine degree and a PhD, but this takes an extra 2-4 years depending on your PhD project. Doing that will definitely help you further into being an academic clinician, but you've got to have the academic record at medical school to justify them putting you on the course (usually is decided before you start your clinical years).

Of all the unis, probably Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, Edinburgh and Newcastle (I think) try to encourage people to do research in particular - though from my understanding all medical schools do like students doing research.

Reply 2

Funky_Climber

YES
YES

Birmingham have a thing for academic medicine and so does Warwick

Reply 3

Sherskey

Original post by purplefrog

Yea that was what I was worried about. Asking why not a science degree. I would still like to practice because I would be able to understand the problems that plague patients then translate them into medical research. Moreover, I can also go into medical research and help prevent certain diseases (studying genes which can cause diabetes, studying risk factors for onset of ADHD in kids) as it can prevent people from falling prey to such diseases. I mean as a doctor you cure people but as much as you can you should try to prevent such illnesses too, right? Also, may I ask if it's a misconception that only clinical scientists can carry out research projects ethically that involve humans? Or does anyone else with a phd is able to do so? Your reply is greatly appreciated :smile:

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Reply 4

purplefrog

Original post by Sherskey

Also, may I ask if it's a misconception that only clinical scientists can carry out research projects ethically that involve humans?

Certainly is a misconception. Psychologists, economists, sociologists and many other disciplines carry out ethical studies involving people too.

And a good justification on why not biomed. Be sure to emphasise you wanting to " be able to understand the problems that plague patients then translate them into medical research" as that gives you a practical vision for research - which is important now more than ever as funding is really hard to get hold of, so grants given are partially judged by how the research can be applied in practice (it is harder to do research for the sake of research now than it was 10 years ago or so, but it always has been tricky).

Reply 5

Sambo2

I would give St Andrews a plug here - it's not a hotspot for medical research (though it's getting better all the time) but it's a small school, so you can pretty much gaurentee you'll be able to get a research placement in years 1&2, then in year three you do a sixth month research project (which can be laboratory based). You then also have the opportunity to spend a year with one of the research groups and do an MRes. Our facilities are excellent and everything is integrated so that the clinical medicine and laboratory science all happens in the same building. Several undergraduates (me included) have managed to publish during our BSc courses. If you want to know more, pm me.

Original post by Sherskey

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Reply 6

Smason5

I also want to become a clinical scientist but i didn;t mention this at all thro my medical application as i didn't want to seem narrow-minded. As i am so inexperienced in medicine i felt it was too early to decide and so i opted out of mentioning it. Tho i don't think they will mind i just didn't want the hassle of the questions mentioned above and i guess they are right that i can change my mind. Haven't yet tho.

Reply 7

Sherskey

I have another question, are there types of research where only a doctor with an MBBS can do but other types of researchers can't?

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