Training the Next Generation of Clinician Scientist

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Clinician scientists are a vital component of the biomedical research workforce. Unfortunately, early career clinicians currently make up a smaller share of funded investigators than ever, and the training pipeline for clinician scientists is shrinking. This T35 training grant proposal seeks continuation of a highly productive training program with an overall goal of encouraging talented and motivated medical students and pharmacy students to careers as clinician scientists. Programs to attract interested medical students to careers as physician scientists complement MD-PhD training programs because MD scientists are more likely to become engaged in patient- oriented research compared to MD-PhD scientists and MD scientists more often choose research as a career direction during medical school compared to MD-PhD scientists who generally choose before medical school. In the next funding period we propose to expand the program to include pharmacy students to train pharmacist scientists, who play an increasingly important role in research in new therapeutics in infectious diseases and immunological disorders, including cancer. In addition to expanding the pool of clinician scientists, this approach provides valuable interprofessional research experiences for medical students and PharmD students to work together. The program offers a research and career development experience between the first and second year of professional school, building on a partnership between University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The training program has been enormously successful. During the first ten years, every position has been filled with 100% of 70 students completing the nine-week program. The program has influenced medical students in how they view research and academic careers. Several students have continued in research, have presented their work at national conferences, published papers in peer-reviewed journals and are on academic career paths. An important priority of this program, which we will continue to emphasize, is the recruitment of individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences. During the previous five-year funding period, 30% of students were underrepresented minorities and 63% were women. In addition to including one to two PharmD students per year, we propose two additional innovations in the next funding period. Students who complete the program will earn a digital badge and an opportunity to earn a micro-credential, which are an emerging, innovative educational approach awarded for completion of a learning experience. They are shareable on ePortfolio, digital resumé or Linked-In profiles and are increasingly valued in education and industry as a way to document training that learners can bring with them as their careers progress. A second innovation is that we will build on our pipelines to attract students from underrepresented groups through partnerships with internal programs and with other institutions. This T35 program, designed to introduce medical and pharmacy students to careers as clinician scientists, is responsive to a national priority to increase the number of clinician scientists in the U.S. biomedical research workforce.