Top 5 Degrees to Match Your Doctorate in Pharmacy

Darshan: So one of the big questions that pharmacy students asked me is rather routinely, "What do I do after getting a PharmD degree?" This question is often led with, "I think I should go get a residency." This often leads to, "I don't know what else to do." Well, we're going to answer that question right now. Here are the top five degrees pharmacists can often get after their PharmD. Degree number one, I might be biased, but a Juris Doctorate degree. So you might be able to do your PharmD and then go get your JD. Another one that I've seen that's extremely common is getting an MBA. And the reason for the MBA is you can go into hospital management. The JD obviously, gives you the opportunity to start working in compliance, to start working with pharmacy-related issues. People like to call it pharmacy law. There's no such thing as pharmacy law per se, but there are people who do a lot of work in the pharmacy area. Then there are, as degree number three, getting an MPH. So we're talking about coronavirus, we're talking about COVID, MPH degrees, especially in the context of pharmacy become really useful because someone's got to talk and advise on what are the public health implications associated with pharmacy and whether you're going to use hydroxychloroquine or if there's something better out there, and what is the impact on population dynamics? And that becomes a really interesting degree to have as well. Similarly, a very common degree to have, and that's number four now, is getting your medical doctor degree. So pharmacists often say, "You know what, I've learned how to treat, what I'd like to learn how to do is diagnose and I'd like to play quote-unquote quarterback for my patients' health." And an MD does allow for that to happen. So the 4 degrees we have so far is a JD, an MBA, an MPH, and an MD. The fifth degree that does pop up is actually someone who goes from getting a doctorate in pharmacy to getting a bachelor's in informatics. And you'll see that often done because people are starting to work more and more with Epic and Cerner and other systems, and that's the advantage you get with a bachelor's in informatics. If you have questions, if you've done any of these degrees, feel free to reach out to me or click the like button. And I look forward to hearing from you. Narrator: This is the Darshan Talks Podcast. Regulatory guy, irregular podcast, with host Darshan Kulkarni. You can find the show on Twitter @darshantalks or the show's website at darshantalks.com.