MD-Master of Public Health

Balance your career with a joint MD-MPH degree

The IU School of Medicine and the IU Fairbanks School of Public Health MD-MPH dual degree program incorporates public health training into the medical school curriculum. You will learn about core public health topics while pursuing the medical education required to be a physician.

This degree will prepare you to balance your career between direct medical care of individuals and health system leadership and/or public health practice within communities. It will also expand your career options by making you more marketable as a leader in a wide variety of careers (i.e. global health, hospital and clinic leadership, health policy, health care research, nonprofit management, environmental health, refugee and immigrant health, and more). The MD-MPH program is designed for completion in either four or five years.

Jen Walthall

I was armed at graduation to begin service as a public health practitioner for individual patients, scholarship development and program building.

Jen Walthall, MD, MPH, Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) Secretary

Admissions

Four-year MD-MPH
Medical students who are interested in pursuing the four-year joint MD-MPH degree must apply and be admitted to the Fairbanks School of Public Health at the time that they apply for admission to the IU School of Medicine.

Five-year MD-MPH
Students who are interested in the five-year program (which includes an enhancement year to complete the required MPH courses) or who become interested in obtaining an MPH degree after admission to IUSM must apply through the dual degree application supplement during the Fall semester of their third year of medical school.

Financial Aid

Students in the MD-MPH program will be considered for scholarships ranging from 50% to 100% tuition coverage for the public health coursework. 

See the MPH-MD admissions criteria

Alumni Career Profiles

To help our prospective students understand the possibilities a degree in Public Health offers, we've asked several alumni to share the career opportunities they have had since graduating. Browse the alumni career profiles to see what our graduates are up to.

Michael Sheehan

Curriculum

The Fairbanks School and the IU School of Medicine have developed an innovative MD-MPH curriculum that integrates medicine and public health training. Students learn key public health topics, including issues related to environmental health, infectious disease control, biostatistics, disease prevention and health promotion, epidemiological studies, and health policy.

The MD-MPH provides you with two options for pursuing your studies:

  • Students accepted into the four-year program when admitted into IUSM begin by taking three core public health courses during the summer before their first year of medical school. The remainder of courses are taken at intervals throughout the four medical school years.
  • Students accepted into the five-year program begin by taking three core public health courses during the first summer term of their enhancement year, which is between the third and fourth years of medical school. The remaining classes are completed during the following fall and spring terms of the enhancement year.

We offer the flexibility you need, combined with experiential learning to prepare you for an exciting and fulfilling career:

  • To incorporate experiential learning, a public health internship and capstone course are required in both the four- and five-year programs. 
  • All MPH courses are exclusively taken asynchronously online.
  • To make it easier to complete two degrees in such a short time, 12 of the total 45 MPH credits can be obtained through pre-approved MD courses and fourth-year electives.

Students in the MD-MPH dual degree program will have the option of pursuing a global health focus where they spend up to a year in IUSM’s program in Kenya participating in an ongoing research project while also getting exposure to clinical care in Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and its clinics. During that year, they will continue to complete their required MPH coursework online.

All students in the MD-MPH dual degree are required to pass the Certified Public Health exam to meet graduation requirements.