About

I went through Brown’s BS/MD program, then helped run it.

A Brown PLME graduate and former Assistant Dean in PLME. A physician practicing today who has published peer-reviewed research on where BS/MD students end up. Author of The Case Files, the free casebook of real BS/MD application questions. Bridge2MD is where that perspective goes to work.

Dr. Rory Merritt, MD, MEHP

Brown PLME 2009 · Alpert M.D. 2013 · Former Assistant Dean, PLME 2018 to 2022 · Practicing physician today

The white coat, the whole way

age 17, high-school anatomy

medical school, gross anatomy

the glamour of residency

physician today

and a dad

For anyone who says you cannot know you want medicine this young: I did, at seventeen. And now that I am here, I mostly wear scrubs.

Why I built Bridge2MD

I applied to Brown’s combined medical program as a first-generation student. No one in my family had been through it, so I was working from guesses about what mattered. I got in.

For a long time I took that to mean I had understood the process. Only years later, watching families go through it, did I learn that I had not.

Years later I was back inside the same program as an assistant dean. What I saw outside that office pushed me to build this: families spending thousands on help the student did not need, steered toward the biggest package by people who were never going to tell them the truth.

Bridge2MD is the honest take I wish my own family could have found. Sometimes that answer is that you are already on the right path and do not need to spend another dollar. I will tell you that too.

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Four things

• I went through it.

  Undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University and its Warren Alpert Medical School (A.B. 2009, M.D. 2013), through the combined-program path itself.

• I helped run it.

  Assistant Dean in Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), the original BS/MD program, from 2018 to 2022. Then Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and the Learning Environment at the medical school through 2024.

• I studied it.

  First author of peer-reviewed research on the outcomes of combined BA-MD and BS-MD graduates (Academic Medicine, 2021). Co-Chair of the AAMC’s BA-MD Affiliate Group from 2018 to 2021. Few physicians have looked at these programs this way.

• I practice medicine and I teach it.

  Board-certified physician, practicing today. Master of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins. Elected to Alpha Omega Alpha.

The full record

Education

• Brown University, A.B., Community Health, through the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), 2009
• Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, M.D., 2013
• Johns Hopkins University, Master of Education in the Health Professions, 2019

Training

• Residency, Emergency Medicine, George Washington University, 2013 to 2017 (Chief Resident, 2016 to 2017)
• Medical Education Research Fellowship, Brown University, 2017 to 2019
• Diplomate, American Board of Emergency Medicine

Assistant Dean and faculty roles

• Assistant Dean, PLME (the combined BS/MD program), Brown University, 2018 to 2022
• Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and the Learning Environment, Warren Alpert Medical School, 2022 to 2024
• Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School, 2019 to 2022
• Course Leader, PLME 1000: Scientific Foundations of Medicine, Brown University, 2020 to 2021
• Mary B. Arnold Mentor to about 40 medical students, Alpert Medical School, 2020 to 2022

BS/MD scholarship

• Merritt R, Baird J, Clyne B. Demographics and Career Intentions of Graduates of Combined Baccalaureate-MD Programs. Academic Medicine, 2021. View on Google Scholar.
• Co-Chair, AAMC BA-MD Affiliate Group, 2018 to 2021
• Invited AAMC presentations on combined-program career outcomes, 2017 to 2019

Recognition

• 4 Under 40, Rhode Island Medical Society
• Alpha Omega Alpha, Alpert Medical School, 2023
• Senior Citation Award, chosen by the graduating M.D. class, Alpert Medical School, 2023
• Positive Champion of the Learning Environment Award, Alpert Medical School, 2023
• Medical Student Education Award, Brown Department of Emergency Medicine, 2020

Verify the record independently: Google Scholar, ORCID, Doximity. This is the short record. The complete curriculum vitae, with the full list of publications, committees, and presentations, is available on request. Or just write to me: rorymerritt@bridge2md.com.

Where to start

• Read first

  The Reading Room

  Every BS/MD truth, in order, free. Essays, case files, and the Program Directory. The library a physician would build if his only job was to tell the truth about this path. Start here. Most families do not need anything beyond this.

  Browse it all →

• Start free

  Where You Stand

  Five free minutes that tell you which Reading Room essays match your moment.

  See Where You Stand →

• Work with me

  When you want a doctor’s eyes on the real file

  A few honest ways to work together, from five free minutes to full-cycle advising that stays through the first semester after they get in. Most families need only one. Some come back for more. Different families need different things.

  See what I do →