Inclusion in the Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine Physician-Scientist Workforce. Building with Intention

Abstract

Physician-scientists comprise an exceedingly small fraction of the physician workforce. As the fields of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine continue to invest in the development of the physician-scientist workforce, recruitment and retention strategies need to consider the temporal trend in the decline in numbers of trainees pursuing basic research, the challenges of trainees from underrepresented groups in medicine, and opportunities for career and scientific advancement of women physician-scientists. In this perspective article, we examine the headwinds in the training and education of physician-scientists and highlight potential solutions to reverse these trends.

Keywords: basic science; diversity; pipeline; pulmonary and critical care.

Figure 1.

(A) Data represent numbers of K08 and K23 applications to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) from fiscal years 2005–2019. (B) Data represent the success rates (number of applications funded/number of applications reviewed) of K08 and K23 awards from the NHLBI from fiscal years 2005–2019. (C) Data represent numbers of competing K08 and K23 applications from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2005 to 2019. (D) Data represent the success rates (number of applications funded/number of applications reviewed) of K08 and K23 awards from the NIH from fiscal years 2005–2019. Data was provided by NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) (9) and Lindman and colleagues (7).