Many premeds wonder what they should major in before entering medical school. Molecular biology? Biochemistry? Genetics? The de facto advice is to go major in what you love or what interests you. This still holds true. You are going to be studying this stuff for four years, so you might as well make it something that you’re passionate about.
Those of you who are set on the hard sciences, by all means, stick with them. Medicine will always need its basic science and translational researchers pioneering new treatments for crippling diseases. From first hand experience, I can tell you that such scientific study takes patience and perseverance. Realize that you will be in it for the long haul, but the future rewards may be well worth the wait.
What if you aren’t interested in the classic premed majors, though? You tend to be more of a doer than a thinker, so the specifics of cellular division, the intricacies of enzyme kinetics, or even the philosophies of polymaths past just don’t tickle your fancy. Looking at the admissions statistics for medical schools, you may be a bit discouraged because the majority of matriculants have hard science backgrounds. Well, I’m here to tell you today that you need not worry.
Why? Because the future of medicine is digital.
Technology is transforming the way patients and doctors access information and each other. You may have heard all the buzzwords, like Health 2.0 or ePatient, associated with this transformation. Doctor Robert Lambert draws an interesting analogy to the disruption of medicine by showing us how Eastman Kodak, the old juggernaut of photography, was crippled by a group of 13 entrepreneurs at Instagram (I don’t think that is entirely accurate, as I believe the digital camera’s advent was the harbinger of Kodak’s fate, but Dr. Lambert’s point remains salient, nonetheless). Dr. Lambert also says, “That is why I no longer feel that the solution to our problem will come from within the system” – a sentiment I have heard echoing for a while. However, Dr. Lambert warns, an “outsider” redefining the medical paradigm will have an ugly aftermath. I couldn’t agree more.
As Dr. Bryan Vartabedian said, “Physicians no longer control information.” The democratization of health information means two things – there will a lot of it and people won’t necessarily know what to do with it. This is where you, the (un)decidedly nontraditional premed, comes in.
If you want to usher change within the medical community, pursue a major that will give you skills in computer programming languages, mobile app development, user interface design, or engineering. These are skills that will become increasingly important as the public attempts to sift through health information and make it relevant to the individual. On top of that, those skills will be equally as helpful in creating programs that make intuitive sense to physicians. Many physicians complain about how interfaces for EMRs are downright “hostile” for users. You could change that.
As a future physician with a “digital” background, you would passively promote the changes that medicine is predicting now through your familiarity with new technologies, thus dampening the aftermath’s severity. How could someone actively balance clinical work while simultaneously building a new app or technology, though? You would be right to think that it is nigh impossible, especially considering the 32 million newly insured patients who will require equal access to your medical services. It would be a unfair to ask a doctor with such skills to pull double duty and create an app in his or her spare time (which is as common to come by as unicorns are).
So, use those skills to build something useful during undergrad (or grad school). For example, you could build an app that reminds patients with chronic diseases to take a certain medication at regular intervals. Shadow doctors and patients to get an understanding of what their needs are and how a smartphone could help them. From what I know, designing a prototype app requires little in the way of start up time or cost. If you could design a prototype, implement a small scale study in a targeted medical community, and gather some useful data, you would have a unique project to put on your medical school application.
Many premeds fear rejection from medical school because it not only means that they can’t pursue their dream, but now have to put themselves on the job market, at least temporarily, with a degree in some hard science. While I’m fairly certain that they won’t have trouble finding a job in the biotech, pharmaceuticals, or research fields, many worry that they have not accumulated enough skills to render themselves valuable to a company. The stymying “2 year experience minimum” catch for entry-level positions really makes job hunting frustrating. If you pursue one of those “digital” majors I talked about above, not only will you be in demand in the health care sector, but any other sector that’s making an online push as well! Plus, you’ll have a concrete project that showcases your skills, which can often times make-up for the lack of two years of experience. It’s a built-in backup plan in case the dream of medical school needs to be put on hold!
As with any career advice, do what is best for you. I may say one thing, your counselor another, and your parents may suggest a third option. Just make sure you do your research beforehand. This is your future and you want to make sure you are armed to the teeth with all the information you can wrangle. Only then should you make your decision. I wish you the best of luck with the process.
