Year 4

The MD Foundations: Immersion Phase

Congrats! You’ve made it through most of med school and are ready to apply to residency. M4 is a time to narrow down your ultimate specialty choices, dive deeper into the rotations you love, and make the most of your last few months of med school. Read more about our uniquely individualized M4 curriculum on our MD Curriculum website.

Meanwhile, in MIDP: Industry Immersion

The immersive, flexible nature of the M4 curriculum integrates perfectly with your fourth-year MIDP goals to create the Industry Immersion experience: an away month during September of your M4 year where you’ll join an industry-level innovation team.

Each MIDP’s Industry Immersion is completely unique. Your advisors will help you locate a team and project that fit your career interests and strengths, anywhere in the country. Many MIDP students and alumni have found that their Industry Immersion extends into a longer-term employment opportunity or part-time contribution to the team.

Meet a fourth-year MIDP

This is Noah, a medical innovator with a PhD in chemistry from Vanderbilt University. As a graduate student, he spent many hours working alone on his dedicated dissertation research. Coming to MIDP, he found a new love and appreciation for team-based activities to solve case-based learning problems and build friendships in the medical community.

Through Right Brain Activities, the MD Advising Colleges, and spontaneous get-togethers with colleagues and friends, Noah found a community to support him, especially as he navigates the more self-directed portion of MIDP. As he said, “We’re not just here to experience the program; we’re a part of the culture of the program.”

Meet an MIDP alumna

Emily joined the MIDP with a PhD in biochemistry and cell biology. During her M3 year, her team used IDEA Lab to develop an algorithm that predicts hospital readmissions. Their 12 weeks of design and careful prototyping paid off. In just a few months, their product had won two pitch competitions and funding to continue the project. In March 2022, she matched into Internal Medicine-Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine where she now works as a resident physician, informing care through innovation and altruism.

“Through MIDP, I saw how you can use entrepreneurship to further patient care,” Emily said. “It’s not about making a profit; it’s about making a difference. For people that are more like me and not interested in economic benefits of entrepreneurship, there’s a lot of space in MIDP for social ventures and trying to improve the world.”