Medical Education In India, Britain & U.S. Explained

Hasn’t it always baffled you why Gregory House in the House is M.D. but what you have been hearing from your parents about being a doctor is the term MBBS? The fact is in India; we mostly follow British terms which are very different from the ones used in the United States.

If you’re thinking about the option for medical education in India or the United States, here’s a post to clear out your confusion about different terms.

Let’s begin with the United States.

In the United States, you get an M.D. degree after graduation. The people who get this level often state their names as “Gregory House, M.D.” or just “Dr. Gregory House”. There’s another degree in U.S. that people opt for instead of M.D. degree and it is Doctor of Osteopathy. The individuals who hold this degree name themselves as “Peter Brown, D.O.” You know I am just using examples for the names and too many references from the American television series House. Right?

Apart from this, it’s compulsory for any person who goes through proper medical education and gets a degree to sit for the licensing exam. You can practice medicine in the United States only if you have cleared that exam.

The P.Hd. is a doctorate and it’s mostly an academic degree. You do not indulge yourself in patient care or general practice if you hold this degree. It’s more about researching. Let me clear it with an example. Psychiatrists hold an M.D. degree, and therefore they treat patients and prescribe them medicines. Clinical psychologists hold a P.Hd. Degree so even when they deal with patients, they cannot legally prescribe medicines to the patients.

In the United States, students must complete an undergraduate course with particular science subjects (the list is often available with individual medical schools) and then apply for the graduate school which will be their M.D. course of four years. There are dual M.D./P.Hd. Programs and it takes around 7-10 years to complete this kind of medical education.

Whereas in Britain, medical school is 4-5 years long for a degree like MBBS, MBChB, MBBch, etc. You need an undergraduate degree to be able to take these courses for medical education.

You’ll note that both the systems are slightly different than medical education system in India. In India, you finish +1 and +2 in science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology). Then you go for a five-year MBBS course.

If you wish to study medicine in the United States instead of India, it’ll be tough to get into a U.S. medical school and manage your finances. It’s a good idea to consider Carribean medical school like AUSOM that follow the same education standard as a U.S. medical school and give you an opportunity to do your clinical rotation in the U.S. It enables you to be eligible for practicing in the U.S. once you get the necessary license.