Ask Dr. Dale - The PreHealth Guy

Dr. Dale, I am thinking of applying to medical school this summer. Do you have any advice for me? RT, Indiana Dear RT, Before starting the application process to any professional school, make sure you are ready to apply. You are ready to apply when your application for graduate school is strong enough to meet your goals.   If you are ready that is super. If not, focus on fixing deficiencies first before applying. For example, are you happy with your MCAT   (DAT, GRE…) score?   Are they competitive enough for your situation?   If not remedying this before you apply makes sense.   How many volunteer hours do you have? Most graduate programs publish average numbers of volunteer hours of accepted students.   Community service, especially in a health care setting, shows the graduate school that you have made an informed choice by pursuing a career as a physician or other professional. How do you stack up? Talking to your advisor to make sure you are...

Informatics is a career for the 21st century. Computer technology and the electronic medical record have changed the face of medicine forever.   There are a wide variety of jobs in the industry for people coming from diverse educational and technical backgrounds. Informatics can be viewed as proceeding along a continuum from the cellular level ( bioinformatics ) to the personal arena ( medical  or  clinical informatics ) to population health ( public health informatics).   Professionals enter informatics careers in several ways. A clinical background or degree (MD,RN…) can be a precursor to the role of Chief Medical or Nursing Informatics Officer.   Biology or Computer Science education can facilitate a career in bioinformatics.   You do not need to be a computer programmer or a clinician to enter the field but it may affect your role in the industry.   Clinical informatics usually requires an advanced degree (master degree or higher). There is a c...