Doctor of medicine, law degree achievable simultaneously in new program

For those who have trouble choosing between being a doctor or a lawyer, have no fear: You can now become both at Penn.

Penn Law announced the arrival of a joint J.D./M.D. program on June 6, which will begin in the 2017-2018 academic year. The program will allow students to receive an M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine and a J.D. from Penn Law in six years.

“The law touches every aspect of society, and for students, having degrees in both law and medicine is both highly beneficial to one’s career as well as to society, and a wholly unique advantage,” Penn Law Dean Ted Ruger said in the announcement on Penn Law’s website.

“Having a knowledge of the law is, increasingly, an integral part of being both a physician and a biomedical research scientist,” Penn Medicine Dean J. Larry Jameson said in a news release for Penn Medicine. “The JD/MD program will empower health professionals to effectively address the emerging legal issues that accompany topics ranging from patient confidentiality in the era of big data and electronic medical records to patenting and commercialization processes for new discoveries.”

The program took approximately 12 to 18 months to develop. It is comprised of 86 credit hours, requiring roughly six years to complete.

“We already partner with Perelman School of Medicine in connection with the very popular J.D./M.B.E. [Master’s in Bioethics], so the decision to formalize a J.D./M.D. was the next logical step — especially given that both schools are ranked among the best in their fields,” Ruger said.

Students are enrolled in the M.D. program at the Perelman School of Medicine full-time for the first two years of the joint degree program, then in the J.D. program at Penn Law for the next two. The fifth year is normally split between participating in the J.D. program in the fall and the M.D. program in the spring, completing the law degree that year. Students take the final year to complete the M.D. program.

Applicants are required to apply to both Penn Law and Perelman separately. They may apply to Penn Law either at the same time as Perelman or during the first two years of the program.

Interdisciplinary learning is strongly emphasized at the University of Pennsylvania, through a number of programs. According to Penn Medicine, 65 percent of Penn Medicine and 75 percent of Penn Law students complete joint certificate or degree programs.

“Adding this new, joint medicine/law degree continues that longstanding tradition of offering relevant, cross-disciplinary collaboration for its students,” Senior Vice Dean of Education Gail Morrison said in the Penn Law announcement.

“Students see the value and take advantage of joint degree and certificate programs, which are very popular at Penn Law,” Ruger said. “We also have a lot of student interest in working at the intersection of law and health.”

Penn Law and Perelman offer a J.D./M.B.E. program, which includes a law degree and a Master’s in Bioethics. According to Penn Medicine, it is common for medical students to also earn Master’s degrees in Bioethics. The Master in Law (M.L.) program at Penn Law offers a health law track designed for medical professionals.

“Compared to the J.D./M.B.E., which is geared to future lawyers looking to gain expertise in health and bioethics, the J.D./M.D. is also for future doctors who are looking to gain deep expertise in law and legal issues,” Ruger said.

The new J.D./M.D. program is designed for students who plan to do work involving law, health and medicine in areas where the fields connect and overlap. According to Morrison, the program is expected to prove especially useful for students preparing to work internationally, in pharmaceutical companies, with start-ups and with clinical trials that study human patients. The degree has applications for technology, product and app development.

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