Tom and Anne Smith of Columbia established the MU medical school’s MD-PhD program with a transformational gift. Additional support for MU’s MD-PhD program will help the university play a more significant role in the exciting evolution of medical research, training and patient care.
MU envisions building a much stronger and larger MD-PhD program by providing scholarships that will pay for the medical education component of the program. Although the PhD portion of education is generally covered by funding that supports research, the MD component costs most students approximately $25,000 a year in tuition alone.
Scholarships for MD-PhD students provide immediate benefits to medicine. Medical students are allowed to explore the potential of science during their years of highest creativity and interdisciplinary training. As MD-PhD graduates advance in their careers, scholarships they received as students allow them to have more years of productive research without the enormous burden of tuition debt from medical education. And when MD-PhD graduates complete training in their chosen clinical specialties, they typically return to academic medical centers such as MU’s to lead translational research teams and train the next generation of physician-scientists.
To give to the Tom and Anne Smith MD-PhD Program, please contact MU School of Medicine Advancement at 573-882-6100 or toll-free at 866-260-4517.
