Welcome to the home page for the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. Program website. Our program offers a combined training program leading to both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees.  We provide excellent training for students who desire to pursue careers as physician-scientists who will make contributions to the advancement of science and medicine. Our program is geared for individuals with this goal. We provide strong basic science and clinical course work and research opportunities to achieve these goals. We have developed an active weekly journal club for all of our M.D./Ph.D. students. This journal club, "The Scientific Basis of Medicine", is given as a one credit course and provides opportunities to rigorously critique the scientific and medical literature, promotes scientific rigor, and allows for continuing strong interactions between the students and the M.D./Ph.D. trained faculty who direct the journal club.

The M.D./Ph.D. program accepted its first student in 1992. Our program has many features which make it excellent for combined clinical and research training.  We are very concerned with the development of each student, and spend considerable time and effort working with them during the typical training period that, on average, has been 8 years. Our graduates are competitive at a national level and have matched at major residency programs. We indicate where our students choose to further their training after graduation in this website.

This is an exciting time in medicine as the great strides which are being made in medical research are being translated into powerful therapeutic and diagnostic tools to improve patient care. Our students and graduates of the program are in the forefront of these changes. It is more and more apparent how highly trained physician-scientists with abilities in basic science and clinical medicine are critical to these advances. The continuing improvement in medicine depends on such individuals, and our program is committed to training future leaders in both disciplines. The success of our students indicates the effectiveness of our program. The faculty take considerable pride in their achievements.

Please feel free to contact the Program Director, Dr. Julian Leibowitz (leibowitz@medicine.tamhsc.edu), members of our Advisory Committee, or our students with questions or comments about our M.D./Ph.D. program.