Stanford Medicine MD/Masters Program in Health Equity
Stanford Medicine MD/Masters Program in Health Equity is a 5 year MD/Masters program that is committed to developing a cohort of physician-leaders with the skills and resources to promote Health Equity.
The program will encompass the entirety of the student’s medical school education. The program will fully fund tuition and stipend to complete a one year masters program of the student’s choice. Scholars in Health Equity programming will provide a foundation in theory; exposure to a wide range of content areas and methodologies; as well as the tools to translate scholarship into advocacy and action. The program will also provide community, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
We envision that Scholars in Health Equity will have a wide range of subject area interests and scholarly expertise focused by the common lens of Health Equity. We envision creating a vibrant community of Scholars who will continue to support each other throughout their careers. We will work in synergy with the other initiatives to train a cohort of physicians with a commitment to promote health equity.
Eligibility: Open to all Stanford preclinical MD students.
Applications are closed
Application window will re-open in Spring 2026.
Contact
For more information contact:
Dr. Ewen Wang, Program Director: ewen@stanford.edu
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Scholar Resources
Stanford Medicine MD/Masters Program in Health Equity
We will choose our fourth cohort in the Spring of 2026. MD Students matriculating in the fall of 2025 (SMS1) will be given precedent; however we may consider other preclinical students, on a case-by-case basis, second or even entering third year students committed to the Scholar in Health Equity vision.
Training and career development program for all Scholars in Health Equity
Health Equity Programming
Preclinical programming has the objectives of: fostering community, providing theoretical foundations, content and research method exposure, and experience in the area of health equity research.
- Students will participate in the Scholar in Health Equity Research seminar series.
- Students will choose a scholarly concentration area from which to approach health equity and take the scholarly concentration introductory seminar and methods coursework.
- Students are highly encouraged to take the Health Equity and Social Justice scholarly concentration application core course (Med269A).
- Students will complete a research project focused on Health Equity during the MS1 summer (anticipated funding from Medical Scholars program).
Advanced programming has the objectives of: fostering community, building lifelong networks and learning how to translate research into action e.g., leadership, communication and advocacy training.
Masters Program Choice and Application
Students will identify and apply to the masters program from which they wish to focus their health equity scholarship. All programs must be at Stanford, unless Stanford does not have the program of study e.g., Masters of Public Health. The masters program, will start after the preclinical years and passing STEP 1 exam. We anticipate students will enroll after the 2nd year of medical school, but we are open to enrollment after a year of clinical experience.
Masters Program Year
Masters course work and research hours are anticipated to take one full-time year and possibly a few additional months interspersed with the last year of clerkships. (Students in the past have often finished their masters thesis during the last clinical year, concurrent with away rotations and match applications). In order to obtain the masters degree, students must fulfill all requirements of the degree program in which they enroll. It is our intention that some of the programming could fulfill masters programs required courses and electives so that students will not be subject to duplicative coursework. The masters program year would include Research in Progress sessions as well as program activities as allowed by schedule.