| The answer to this largely depends on what type of medical research you're talking about - surgical equipment? developing new drugs? working with implantable devices? stem cells or gene therapy? making artificial organs?
Whether or not you will need to go to med school or grad school will largely depend on how involved you want to be. Would you be happy running experiments that others design? Would you be happier designing the experiments? Or designing equipment to carry out tests that others design?
I've worked in a few different research settings now, and I have to say that they vary widely. Some labs are very demanding (I've known a few individuals that consistently put in 12 hour days), while others are more laid back and flexible (as long as they put in a full week of work, the time of day they were in the lab really didn't matter). Finding a lab with people that have the same work ethic as you can make an okay job into a great job.
There are lots of great opportunities in medical research, and there are many ways to get there. If you have any better ideas of what you're interested in, I may be able to point you in a general direction. Once you get to college you'll have lots of opportunities to explore and make further decisions! | 
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