Physician-scientist

A physician-scientist is a holder of a degree in medicine and science who invests significant time and professional effort in scientific research and spends correspondingly less time in direct clinical practice compared to other physicians. Physician-scientists are often employed by academic or research institutions and may focus their clinical practices on very specialized patient populations, such as those with rare genetic diseases or rare cancers. Although they are a minority of both practicing physicians and active research scientists, physician-scientists are often cited as playing a critical role in translational medicine and clinical research, connecting biomedical research findings to health care applications. The United States National Institutes of Health includes holders of other clinical degrees - such as nurses, dentists, and veterinarians - in its studies of the physician-scientist workforce (PSW).

Physician-scientists by definition hold degrees in medicine; they may also hold additional graduate degrees such as a Ph.D. In the United States and Canada, some universities run specialized dual degree MD-PhD programs, and a small number of D.O.-granting institutions also offer dual degree options as D.O.-Ph.D. In the United States the NIH supports competitive university programs called Medical Scientist Training Programs that aim to train physician-scientists, originally established in 1964 and present at 45 institutions as of 2015. Similar programs were established in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, although with relatively less funding support. Although this dual-degree pathway is not necessary to establish a physician-scientist career, most do receive some form of explicit research training in addition to their clinical education.

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