[vlad_ungureanu]

If you have knowledge both in biology as a physician and can code, you can also become a bioinformatician, where you can still apply ML. Maybe the difference will be that it will be more on the application side of the ML rather than the theoretical part.

Also, I will be cautious about "... landing a PhD position at a good US school", from my experience and others, I've found out that it's more important to look after a supervisor with whom you can resonate rather than chasing a reputable institution.

(Disclaimer, I'm a PhD student in the UK)

[rwanda]

It's sort of the problem I'm facing here. Research in machine learning is weak in my country, so I'd probably have to apply elsewhere. Medical research here is very good though, so I would have no problem just staying here as there are multiple good advisors. This is what makes A PhD in machine learning so much more difficult.