<p>How much access do PhD-only scientists have to patients? (for example, if someone wanted to study sleep in humans)</p>
<p>Do PhD programs in general provide training for that kind of research? </p>
<p>I haven’t really searched everything, but so far, all I’ve seen is that they provide training in wet lab systems only</p>
<p>I don’t think PhD students get very much (if at all) interaction with patients. There are a few programs that are skewed a bit more in that sort of clinical direction, but I wouldn’t expect any interaction at all. If that is what you are looking for, try to look for MD/PhD programs. I know Rockefeller and Sloan-Kettering both have PhD programs that have opportunities to interact with patients and shadow a doctor, but I wouldn’t expect it to be a big part of the program.</p>
<p>This all depends on the research project. PhD candidates deal with human subjects all the time.</p>
<p>It is true that this varies by discipline. A molecular biologist will probably never see a human subject. A neuropsych grad student may only deal with human subjects. It all depends.</p>
<p>FWIW, MD/PhD programs are an entirely different kettle of fish. If you want to do medical research involving humans, you don’t need an MD/PhD. A plain old MD is fine.</p>