| Description: | The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa received approval in December 2009 to launch its MD / PhD Program. The program offers exceptional students the opportunity to pursue two degrees over the course of seven years. The MD / PhD Program at the University of Ottawa enrolled its first four students in the summer of 2010 and is based on a single integrated curriculum. That is, it combines our existing undergraduate medical school curriculum with approved doctoral graduate programs in Biochemistry, Biology, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Human and Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, or Neuroscience. Epidemiology will be added in the near future.
The MD / PhD Program at the University of Ottawa seeks to attract the small cadre of students that are best described by the Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell as ‘outliers’ in his book, The Story of Success. Outliers could be characterized as a small number of gifted students in incoming classes that are able to perform above the ordinary because of several complementary virtues, which include among others: an innate curiosity and passion for discovery; a well nurtured talent to process information; early involvement in scientific exploration and health care delivery; sustained commitment to hard work; and the emotional maturity to communicate well with others. Upon graduation from the MD / PhD Program you may find yourself pursuing a career in basic science research, in disease-oriented research, in research focused on patients, in health care policy making, or in a pharma / biotechnology oriented field. |