Match Day, a rite of passage for thousands of medical students around the country, is the day when fourth-years find out where they will begin their residency training. Amid the excitement, however, a relatively small number of students stand apart, eager to embrace a different sort of future—one without stethoscopes or sutures. These doctors-to-be have chosen to stow their white coats and pursue nonclinical careers in lieu of medical residencies.
Seeking a “new pathway,” they enter fields ranging from management consulting to investment banking to biotech engineering. These pioneers represent a cohort about which little is known, and in my search to uncover their motivation for straying from the beaten path, I interviewed a sampling of its members from the HMS Class of 2005.
Arif Nathoo pursued a joint degree at the Kennedy School and graduated from HMS with an MD and a master’s in public administration. He joined McKinsey & Company as a management consultant after seriously considering a career in ophthalmology. Nathoo is deeply curious about the structural aspects of health care systems, and this interest motivated his choice to pursue a career in business strategy and consulting rather than clinical medicine.
“My third-year rotation in medicine piqued my interest in health care systems and how they work on a higher level,” he said. “After months of unsuccessfully trying to abate my curiosity about how they are put together and how we might one day improve them, I decided that residency was not the right option for me.” His dream lies in one day designing a health care system that integrates “clinical medicine, hospitals, payers, and pharmaceutical companies” in a way that capitalizes on untapped efficiencies. So far, he is satisfied with his decision and has gained “exposure and experience” that would not have been possible in a residency program.
Though the particulars are different, Nathoo’s underlying motivation for pursuing a career outside clinical medicine is similar to that of Anita Goel. Graduating from HMS with a PhD in physics, Goel “enjoyed clinical training” in the Health Sciences and Technology program, but her research interests in physics, medicine, and nanotechnology drew the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies interested in advanced technology. In her fourth year, Goel was faced with “time-sensitive opportunities to pursue [her] research passions and make a difference in health care” on a large scale. The possibility spoke to her dreams and aspirations, and she now has a joint appointment at Harvard and MIT and is passionately pursuing her research.
Another alum driven by passion for research is Martin Burke, who graduated from HMS with a PhD in chemistry. During his first year at HMS, he became excited about the idea that synthetic molecules having proteinlike activity could potentially be used to treat diseases caused by the absence of viable proteins. Over the course of medical school, Burke “came to realize that this particular challenge was going to require a 100 percent commitment to research” and “took the plunge” in his last year, applying for academic research positions in chemistry. These efforts landed him at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an assistant professor of chemistry and an active researcher, he is excited about the advances he has already made and looks optimistically toward the future.
Joseph Corkery pursued a career that bridges medical technology and computer science. Between his second and third years of medical school, Corkery took two years off to work with OpenEye Scientific Software, a company that develops software to model molecular interactions and identify structures with potential biological applications. After graduating from HMS, he rejoined the company full time. “I liked medicine, I enjoyed it,” he told me, but developing software in this scientifically technical field appealed to him in a way that clinical medicine did not. “Our software is used in most of the large pharmaceutical companies around the world,” he said. On a personal level, he and his wife recently had a daughter, and he feels his career choice allows him to “be more active in [his] child’s life.”
My conversations with these recent graduates made clear that deep passion for their work is the attribute they share. When I asked them what advice they might give students considering alternative pathways after medical school, their responses were uncannily similar: take your time and follow your heart. “Take as much time as you need during medical school to explore options,” Nathoo said. “Once you know what’s available to you and what’s been done in these other areas, you’ll be able to make the best decision for your career.”
Joseph Ladapo is a Harvard medical student and a PhD student in health policy.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Harvard Medical School, its affiliated institutions, or Harvard University.
