The McMaster MD/PhD program enrolled its first student in 2007 and was developed to help fill the need for clinician-scientists within the health care research environment in Canada and to engage McMaster graduate programs and faculty in meeting this goal. Clinician-scientists have a nuanced understanding of important patient-relevant clinical questions and research methodology, and are in a unique position to rapidly direct research programs to address pressing clinical problems and translate these findings into clinical practice. As an important pathway to a clinician-scientist career, a combined MD/PhD program allows for efficiency and integration in training and has been demonstrated to be effective at helping to develop active and successful medical researchers.

When the MD/PhD program at McMaster University was developed, Ontario had only two MD/PhD programs – a longstanding and well-established program at University of Toronto and a relatively new and fledgling program at Western University. Today, there are five MD/PhD degree programs in Ontario: University of Toronto, McMaster University, Western University, Queens University and University of Ottawa, which comprise nearly half of the MD/PhD programs in Canada. McMaster now admits three students per year. The McMaster MD/PhD Program initially accepted interested and successful MD applicants into a dual degree in Medicine along with a PhD in either the Biochemistry or Medical Sciences Graduate Programs. The MD/PhD program has now expanded the number of eligible graduate programs beyond the original two graduate programs of Biochemistry and Medical Sciences to now include: Health Research Methodology, Health Policy, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Biology.

Students in the MD/PhD Program are supported and mentored by some of the most exceptional faculty at McMaster. Overall, McMaster researchers bring in nearly $300 million in funding each year, making us Canada’s most research-intensive University. McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences consistently ranks among the top 50 in the World and 4th in Canada. We have nearly 900 full-time faculty, 78 endowed chairs and 35 Canada Research Chairs, several of whom are currently supervising students in the MD/PhD Program. Our students work with these internationally recognized scholars and researchers within a close-knit environment designed to emphasize productivity and community. Presently, sixteen students are enrolled in the program. Just over 81% of our students hold external peer-reviewed scholarships. This high level of achievement highlights the exceptional ability of the students in our program, as well as the mentorship they are receiving from their supervisors and the world-class quality of medical and graduate programs within which they study.