Apply to a Physician-Scientist Residency Track
Written by Julie Hansen, MD
When I started the third year of medical school, I was excited and nervous, but also eager to explore the various specialties. I knew from the beginning that I would apply to internal medicine because I loved the idea of knowing information about all aspects of the body. I loved my 3rd-year internal medicine rotation and enjoyed being with patients every day, but quickly discovered there were some patients that we were unable to help. Either the disease had run its course or medications that would normally work just did not. I felt a strong desire that I could do more, and I wanted to do more thorough research and drug development.
I spent the next few weeks looking into physicians who perform a lot of research throughout their training and career. That’s when I found my “dream” job the physician-scientist. “Physician-scientists are physicians who devote regular components of their professional effort seeking new knowledge about health, disease, or delivery of patient care through research” (AAMC). These physicians can be seen working and researching at major academic institutions across the US.
Through my research, I found that there are roughly 700-800 physician-scientist positions in the United States. Major academic programs tend to have 1-5 positions open per residency cycle. Each program typically has a similar schedule for the physician-scientist track: 24 months of internal medicine training, 36 months of research training, and 18-24 months of fellowship training, with ABIM taking place during PYG4 and fellowship board taking place during PGY7. You may have noticed I’m already talking about fellowship inside this physician-scientist track. Most programs offer automatic acceptance into the fellowship of your choice!
Now the big deal everyone wants to know, and so did I when I was researching all the details for this position. What are the requirements applicants need to apply? Most programs end up taking MD/Ph.D. students because they have already established a strong research background, however, MDs can still apply if they have a strong research background and demonstrate a passion for pursuing research as a physician.
After training, physician-scientists can go on to be professors, researchers, administrators, or a combination of those in academia. Physician-scientists can go on to work for pharmaceutical companies. They can also start in academia performing research and later go on to start their own pharmaceuticals companies. The career paths for physician-scientists are broad, but all paths are rewarding as they work to bridge the gap between translational research and medical practice.
