Medical scientists typically need a Ph.D., usually in biology or a related life science, from an accredited postsecondary institution. Some also have a medical degree.
Pay
The median annual wage of medical scientists except epidemiologists was $76,700 in May 2010.
Job Outlook
Employment of medical scientists is expected to increase by 36 percent between 2010 and 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations.
Similar Occupations
Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of medical scientists with similar occupations.
O*NET
O*NET provides comprehensive information on key characteristics of workers and occupations.
Contacts for More Information
Learn more about medical scientists by contacting these additional resources.
What Medical Scientists Do
Medical scientists plan and direct studies to investigate human diseases, and methods to prevent and treat them.
Medical scientists conduct research aimed at improving overall human health. They often use clinical trials and other investigative methods to reach their findings.
Duties
Medical scientists typically do the following:
Plan and direct studies to investigate human diseases, preventive methods, and the treatment of disease
Develop methods, instruments, and procedures for medical applications and data analysis
Prepare and analyze medical samples to identify toxicity, bacteria, or microorganisms or to study cell structure
Standardize drug doses and immunization methods for manufacturing drugs and other medicinal compounds
Work with health departments, industry personnel, and physicians to develop programs that improve health safety standards
Prepare research grant proposals to get funding from government agencies
Follow safety procedures to avoid contamination
Many medical scientists, especially in universities, work with little supervision, forming their own hypotheses and developing experiments accordingly. In addition, they often lead teams, technicians, and, sometimes, students who do support tasks. For example, a medical scientist working in a university laboratory may have undergraduate assistants take measurements and observations for the scientist’s research.
Medical scientists study biological systems to understand the causes of diseases and other health problems. For example, medical scientists who do cancer research might put together a combination of drugs that could slow the progress of the disease. They would then study that combination in a clinical trial. Physicians may work with the medical scientists to try the new combination with patients who are willing to participate in the study.
In a clinical trial, patients agree to help find out if a particular drug, or combination of drugs, or other medical intervention works. Without knowing which group they are in, patients in a drug-related clinical trial either receive the trial drug or receive a placebo, a drug that looks like the trial drug but does not have the special ingredients.
Medical scientists analyze the data from all the patients in the clinical trial to see if the trial drug did better than the placebo, for whom it worked better, and to answer other research questions. They then write up and report their findings.
Medical scientists do research both to develop new treatments and to try to prevent health problems. For example, they may study the link between smoking and lung cancer or between alcoholism and liver disease.
Medical scientists who work in private industry usually have less freedom to choose their research topics. Although they may not have the pressure of writing grant proposals to get money for their research, they may have to explain their research plans to nonscientist managers or executives.
Many medical scientists work in the federal government, in research universities, or in private industry.
In the federal government, medical scientists conduct research on human diseases and on exploratory methods of solving medical problems. They spend most of their time carrying out clinical trials or developing experiments on nonhuman subjects. Medical scientists eventually present their findings in medical journals or other publications.
In universities, medical scientists do research and investigate new medicinal methods of improving health. They also write grants, to organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), to secure steady funding for their research.
In addition to doing research, medical scientists in universities and in government who are also medical doctors may see patients, particularly those participating in clinical trials.
In private industry, medical scientists focus on the development of products such as pharmaceutical drugs and medical instruments. Companies place strong emphasis on the development of products, a process that they hope will culminate with approval from a government agency, often the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The approval process can take several years and be very costly, so private companies typically emphasize development over research.
Work Environment
Medical scientists work in offices and laboratories.
Medical scientists held about 100,000 jobs in 2010. The industries employing the largest numbers of medical scientists in 2010 were as follows:
Scientific research and development services 35%
Colleges, universities, and professional schools;
state, local, and private 24
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing 12
General medical and surgical hospitals;
state, local, and private 11
Drugs and druggists’ sundries merchant wholesalers 2
Medical scientists usually work in offices and laboratories. They spend most of their time studying data and reports in an office or laboratory. Medical scientists sometimes work with inherently unsafe samples, but they take appropriate precautions to ensure that their environment is safe, stable, and sterile.
Most medical scientists work full time.
How to Become a Medical Scientist
Most medical scientists have a Ph.D. in biology or a related life science.
Medical scientists typically need a Ph.D., usually in biology or a related life science, from an accredited postsecondary institution. Some medical scientists get a medical degree instead of a Ph.D. but prefer doing research to practicing as a physician. It is helpful for medical scientists to have both a Ph.D. and a medical degree.
Education
Students planning careers as medical scientists should pursue a bachelor’s degree in a biological science. Undergraduate programs typically include courses in life sciences, as well as chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Humanities courses also are beneficial for developing writing and communication skills, which are necessary for drafting grant proposals and publishing research results.
After students have completed undergraduate studies, there are two main degree paths for prospective medical scientists: either a Ph.D. or a joint M.D.-Ph.D. Students can enroll in a university Ph.D. program in the biological sciences, which typically take about