How to search for multiple strings and replace them with nothing within a list of strings

Question

I have a column in a dataframe like this:

npt2$name
#  [1] \"Andreas Groll, M.D.\"
#  [2] \"\"
#  [3] \"Pan-Chyr Yang, PHD\"
#  [4] \"Suh-Fang Jeng, Sc.D\"
#  [5         


        

Answer 1

Either of these:

gsub("MD|M\\.D\\.|PHD", "", test)  # target specific strings
gsub("\\,.+$", "", test)        # target all characters after comma

Both Matt Parker above and Tommy below have raised the question whether 'M.R.C.P.', 'PhD', 'D.Phil.' and 'Ph.D.' or other British or Continental designations of doctorate level degrees should be sought out and removed. Perhaps @user56 can advise what the intent was.