Physician-Scientist Mentoring at the American Society for Clinical Investigation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Joint Meetings of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) is the preeminent annual meeting of academic physician- scientists. The 2010 Joint Meeting will be held in Chicago, April 23-25, at the Fairmont Hotel. This meeting has occurred annually for over one hundred years and has played an important role in academic medicine throughout that time1. For more than the past decade, the Joint Meeting has primarily stressed mentoring of physician-scientist trainees. This R13 application seeks support for continuation of these efforts. The cost of supporting the ever-increasing numbers of trainees attending the meeting has largely been borne by members of the AAP and ASCI. Traditionally, registration fees for trainees are kept as low as possible, and they are waived whenever possible. Fundraising for educational grants from private for-profit and nonprofit organizations has been partially successful in past years to offset costs, but this has grown increasingly difficult with tighter restrictions and the worsening economy. Last year, the Joint Meeting ran a significant deficit. Despite the adverse climate, the AAP and the ASCI are committed to fostering physician-scientist training and to encouraging trainees to attend the Joint Meeting. Hence, in addition to other efforts, we seek support via the R13 mechanism to foster mentoring of physician-scientist trainees at the Joint Meeting via the following aims: I) Expand the reach of the Joint Meeting to early-career physician-scientist faculty members, and II) Provide mentoring between senior physician-scientists and early-career physician-scientist faculty members. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by the applicant): Physician-scientists provide a critical link between the laboratory and the clinic. The ASCI/AAP Joint Meeting strives to highlight the translational work of well-regarded physician-scientists and to demonstrate that this difficult career path can be navigated successfully. The meeting provides significant opportunity for mentoring of early-career physician-scientists through direct contact with their peers and with senior investigators.