I found a community at UF that makes the long M.D.-Ph.D. journey worth every mile
Working toward an M.D.-P.h.D. at UF, and spending the better part of a decade as a graduate student, is a massive commitment. It is also an incredible opportunity.
I felt a huge jumble of nerves and excitement five years ago, when I packed up my life in a van to move 800 miles to a town I had never even stepped foot in. I had been impressed by the professors I had talked to over Zoom, and even more impressed that the current students seemed happy and well connected, but I still wasn’t quite sure what I had gotten myself into.
I majored in government at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and spent time studying global health at Washington University in St. Louis and working on health policy for Medicare in Baltimore before coming to UF. The program I found here has been both more challenging and more rewarding than I could have imagined.
I have had an incredible community at UF to help navigate the process since the first day of orientation, which I spent anxiously quizzing the other students on alligators and hurricanes. Once I arrived on campus, I was immediately partnered with a peer mentor in the M.D.-P.h.D. program, who shared my public health background, along with a mentor in the M.D. program. They answered so many confused texts from me over my first year, as I figured out how to balance medical school studying with clinical volunteering and research.
It was such a relief to be able to talk to people who had dealt with the same challenges, whether it was figuring out how to select a research mentor or how to not pass out during your first dissection.
The M.D.-P.h.D. program at UF intentionally fosters community through monthly student dinners and social events, including potlucks, game day watch parties and float trips. This has helped me build strong friendships across the many years of the program.
Having the support of people with similar experience has been essential as I’ve progressed along this unique pathway. Sometimes, it’s having a room full of people give you a round of applause when you receive your first grant, because they know how many hundreds of hours you spent developing it. Other times, it’s having friends reach out to check in on you, as you watch your original medical school classmates graduate, since they know how bittersweet it is to celebrate their milestone, while you’re still in the middle of your Ph.D.
Now that I’m five years into the program, it’s hard to imagine going through this journey anywhere else. And thanks to that support, I have been able to develop research projects that are both exciting academically and meaningful to patients.
For example, last July, the National Cancer Institute awarded me the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award – a competitive fellowship that funds further training and research development for select M.D.-Ph.D. students nationally. With this support, I was able to help build a new UF Health Cancer Institute lung cancer screening program that connects patients in both rural and urban areas with clinical community navigators to help support them through the screening process.
Community navigators reach out to eligible patients with a health education tool called LungTalk and then discuss the risks and benefits of screening with patients. Patients who are interested and eligible for screenings receive help navigating scheduling.
I spent the summer working with clinicians, staff and community representatives to refine the workflow and plan implementation support strategies for this program. This spring, the UF Health Cancer Institute will begin enrolling patients into this new study. It has been so rewarding to know I am already helping people in my community.
I was initially nervous that this sort of M.D.-Ph.D. program at UF would attract hyper-competitive people, narrowly focused on their own success. At UF, I’ve learned that it’s often the complete opposite. Research and medicine are deeply collaborative fields, and success in either one requires significant teamwork.
In addition to the support of other students, I have found so many kind research and clinical mentors. They regularly make time to help me develop a project idea, work through an unintuitive experimental result or refine a clinical skill. I still have plenty of challenges ahead as I finish my dissertation and resume clinical rotations later this year, but with the support of my community in Gainesville, I know I’m ready for them.
Miranda Reid is an M.D.-P.h.D. candidate, studying implementation science in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, her research focuses on cancer screening and cancer prevention, and she enjoys trail running, attending concerts and cooking with friends.
For more information about her work, visit:
https://cancer.ufl.edu/2025/01/31/phd-pathways-in-cancer-research-miranda-reid/
https://hobi.med.ufl.edu/2025/08/18/fellowship-to-increase-uptake-of-lung-cancer-screenings/