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Over the past few years, Dr. Lisa G. Criscione-Schreiber, director of Duke University’s rheumatology fellowship program in Durham, N.C., has noticed fewer young professionals who are interested in careers as physician-scientists. While plenty of applicants want to become clinical rheumatologists or perhaps to participate in clinical research, a dwindling number view the life of a physician-scientist as appealing.
“They’re scared,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said in an interview. “They look at their faculty members, and they see people who are killing themselves to get grants. They see people who are well-established faculty members still struggling to get themselves funded. They look at that as what their life is going to be like, and they say, ‘No thanks.’ ”
Funding is one of many barriers for rheumatologists who consider physician-scientist careers. A recent study in Arthritis Care & Research found that money and mentoring – or lack thereof – were the primary reasons that rheumatologists steered clear of careers in academic research. The study analyzed 430 responses from American College of Rheumatology (ACR) members from January 2014 to March 2014 about research participation, barriers and facilitators to research careers, reasons for leaving research careers and ways to support junior investigators. Clinical workload, insufficient protected time, lower salary, and lack of institutional research infrastructure also ranked as top barriers to physician-scientist careers, the study found. Facilitators to research careers on the other hand, included sufficient funding, protected research time, outstanding mentors, institutional support and funding for young investigators and personal traits such as hard work, resilience and initiative (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 [doi:10.1002/acr.22569]).
Investigators had expected that funding would rate high among obstacles for rheumatologist-scientists, according to the first author of the study, Dr. Alexis R. Ogdie-Beatty of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Sharp declines in the National Institutes of Health’s budget have led to widespread decreases in the number of mentored awards for physician-scientists, including basic science and clinical science awards. NIH’s 2013 budget was 22% below its 2003 funding level, according to a 2014 NIH workforce report. For the rheumatology community, the funding constraints translated to a 30% decrease in individual investigator RO1 grants awarded to ACR members from 2010 to 2014, according to an editorial published with the Arthritis Care & Research study (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 Feb. 23 [doi:10.1002/acr.22570]).
“It’s difficult to get funding,” said Dr. Ogdie-Beatty, who is part of the ACR’s Young Investigators Committee. “Supporting your salary is really hard. Institutions have less money to support their young investigators.”
NIH’s low funding rate, combined with other challenges that physician-investigators face, is resulting in a shrinking pool of rheumatologists who pursue such careers, added Dr. David S. Pisetsky, a rheumatologist-immunologist, a basic science researcher, and professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C.
“Coupled with career stress, financial pressures, and difficulties in balancing family and personal issues with the tenuous nature of academics, the pursuit of an investigative career is perceived as too long and hard, especially as the funding situation appears to be persistent and systemwide,” Dr. Pisetsky said in an interview.
A more complex barrier to physician-scientist careers among rheumatologists is that of mentoring, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. Lack of mentorship and lack of access to key people within the field were the top obstacles reported by survey participants. Because rheumatology divisions are often small within academic medical centers, it may be challenging to locate a mentor, particularly within a specific research methodology, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty noted. At the same time, some mentees may have unrealistic expectations of mentors or trouble managing the relationship.
“Mentors are busy because they’re trying to support their own careers, so getting a fully accessible mentor may be difficult,” Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. “The more time they spend with a mentee, the more time they’re not spending on the grants and the papers they need to get to support their own careers.”
Some survey participants also indicated that gender issues remain a barrier in pursuing a career in research and that a lack of flexibility in grants for time off to have children and the ability to work part time prevented their continuing research careers.
“The traditional structure of an academic career was never designed for women,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said. “A young women who finishes [her] fellowship and has a child or who may be planning to have a child in the next couple years is looking at this potential career of writing grants and doing research that’s time limited and time determined. [She is] thinking about child care and nannies and [wondering], ‘How can I make this work?’ I think a lot of people get scared off before they even start.”
Rheumatology experts say focusing on possible strategies to help physician-scientists excel could improve the landscape for young doctors and grow the field. Ideas generated from the study include: developing a formal cross-institutional mentoring network, lobbying for increased NIH funding, and working with institutions to educate division chiefs and fellowship directors on the needs of young investigators.
Another way to improve the climate for young investigators would be to expedite the time it takes to complete training, said Dr. Mark H. Ginsberg, director of the physician-scientist training pathway program at the University of California, San Diego. The long journey through medical school, MD-PhD programs, and clinical training is too much for some young doctors to tackle, he said. “Time is really a big issue for physician-scientists,” Dr. Ginsberg said. “It’s a huge, long stretch. What it really means is the only people who are really going to succeed in this are people who are absolutely determined to do so.”
Dr. Ginsberg suggests abbreviating some of that time and creating more research tracks that effectively shave a year or more off training. Finding ways to incrementally increase the often-low salaries of physician-scientists during training would also be helpful, he said.
Rheumatology leaders also point to existing programs that already are helping to improve opportunities for physician-scientists. For example, the ACR’s ACR/CARRA Mentoring Interest Group (AMIGO) works at matching pediatric rheumatology fellows and junior faculty with mentors of similar interests at other institutions. The program runs in partnership with the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA). Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said the model has been successful and could potentially be expanded to include adult rheumatologists. Additionally, the Rheumatology Research Foundation recently created a new grant – called the Career Development Bridge Funding Award: K Supplement – to help aid researchers who are transitioning from junior to independent investigator.
The ACR’s Young Investigators Committee is currently exploring further ideas that arose during the survey, such as the creation of a list serve or blog site for young rheumatology investigators to share thoughts and information.
“I hope the impact of the study is that rheumatology division chiefs and people who support rheumatology will see this is really a critical need and that together, we can come up with some solutions to help young investigators” succeed, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said.
On Twitter @legal_med
Over the past few years, Dr. Lisa G. Criscione-Schreiber, director of Duke University’s rheumatology fellowship program in Durham, N.C., has noticed fewer young professionals who are interested in careers as physician-scientists. While plenty of applicants want to become clinical rheumatologists or perhaps to participate in clinical research, a dwindling number view the life of a physician-scientist as appealing.
“They’re scared,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said in an interview. “They look at their faculty members, and they see people who are killing themselves to get grants. They see people who are well-established faculty members still struggling to get themselves funded. They look at that as what their life is going to be like, and they say, ‘No thanks.’ ”
Funding is one of many barriers for rheumatologists who consider physician-scientist careers. A recent study in Arthritis Care & Research found that money and mentoring – or lack thereof – were the primary reasons that rheumatologists steered clear of careers in academic research. The study analyzed 430 responses from American College of Rheumatology (ACR) members from January 2014 to March 2014 about research participation, barriers and facilitators to research careers, reasons for leaving research careers and ways to support junior investigators. Clinical workload, insufficient protected time, lower salary, and lack of institutional research infrastructure also ranked as top barriers to physician-scientist careers, the study found. Facilitators to research careers on the other hand, included sufficient funding, protected research time, outstanding mentors, institutional support and funding for young investigators and personal traits such as hard work, resilience and initiative (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 [doi:10.1002/acr.22569]).
Investigators had expected that funding would rate high among obstacles for rheumatologist-scientists, according to the first author of the study, Dr. Alexis R. Ogdie-Beatty of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Sharp declines in the National Institutes of Health’s budget have led to widespread decreases in the number of mentored awards for physician-scientists, including basic science and clinical science awards. NIH’s 2013 budget was 22% below its 2003 funding level, according to a 2014 NIH workforce report. For the rheumatology community, the funding constraints translated to a 30% decrease in individual investigator RO1 grants awarded to ACR members from 2010 to 2014, according to an editorial published with the Arthritis Care & Research study (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 Feb. 23 [doi:10.1002/acr.22570]).
“It’s difficult to get funding,” said Dr. Ogdie-Beatty, who is part of the ACR’s Young Investigators Committee. “Supporting your salary is really hard. Institutions have less money to support their young investigators.”
NIH’s low funding rate, combined with other challenges that physician-investigators face, is resulting in a shrinking pool of rheumatologists who pursue such careers, added Dr. David S. Pisetsky, a rheumatologist-immunologist, a basic science researcher, and professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C.
“Coupled with career stress, financial pressures, and difficulties in balancing family and personal issues with the tenuous nature of academics, the pursuit of an investigative career is perceived as too long and hard, especially as the funding situation appears to be persistent and systemwide,” Dr. Pisetsky said in an interview.
A more complex barrier to physician-scientist careers among rheumatologists is that of mentoring, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. Lack of mentorship and lack of access to key people within the field were the top obstacles reported by survey participants. Because rheumatology divisions are often small within academic medical centers, it may be challenging to locate a mentor, particularly within a specific research methodology, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty noted. At the same time, some mentees may have unrealistic expectations of mentors or trouble managing the relationship.
“Mentors are busy because they’re trying to support their own careers, so getting a fully accessible mentor may be difficult,” Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. “The more time they spend with a mentee, the more time they’re not spending on the grants and the papers they need to get to support their own careers.”
Some survey participants also indicated that gender issues remain a barrier in pursuing a career in research and that a lack of flexibility in grants for time off to have children and the ability to work part time prevented their continuing research careers.
“The traditional structure of an academic career was never designed for women,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said. “A young women who finishes [her] fellowship and has a child or who may be planning to have a child in the next couple years is looking at this potential career of writing grants and doing research that’s time limited and time determined. [She is] thinking about child care and nannies and [wondering], ‘How can I make this work?’ I think a lot of people get scared off before they even start.”
Rheumatology experts say focusing on possible strategies to help physician-scientists excel could improve the landscape for young doctors and grow the field. Ideas generated from the study include: developing a formal cross-institutional mentoring network, lobbying for increased NIH funding, and working with institutions to educate division chiefs and fellowship directors on the needs of young investigators.
Another way to improve the climate for young investigators would be to expedite the time it takes to complete training, said Dr. Mark H. Ginsberg, director of the physician-scientist training pathway program at the University of California, San Diego. The long journey through medical school, MD-PhD programs, and clinical training is too much for some young doctors to tackle, he said. “Time is really a big issue for physician-scientists,” Dr. Ginsberg said. “It’s a huge, long stretch. What it really means is the only people who are really going to succeed in this are people who are absolutely determined to do so.”
Dr. Ginsberg suggests abbreviating some of that time and creating more research tracks that effectively shave a year or more off training. Finding ways to incrementally increase the often-low salaries of physician-scientists during training would also be helpful, he said.
Rheumatology leaders also point to existing programs that already are helping to improve opportunities for physician-scientists. For example, the ACR’s ACR/CARRA Mentoring Interest Group (AMIGO) works at matching pediatric rheumatology fellows and junior faculty with mentors of similar interests at other institutions. The program runs in partnership with the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA). Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said the model has been successful and could potentially be expanded to include adult rheumatologists. Additionally, the Rheumatology Research Foundation recently created a new grant – called the Career Development Bridge Funding Award: K Supplement – to help aid researchers who are transitioning from junior to independent investigator.
The ACR’s Young Investigators Committee is currently exploring further ideas that arose during the survey, such as the creation of a list serve or blog site for young rheumatology investigators to share thoughts and information.
“I hope the impact of the study is that rheumatology division chiefs and people who support rheumatology will see this is really a critical need and that together, we can come up with some solutions to help young investigators” succeed, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said.
On Twitter @legal_med
Over the past few years, Dr. Lisa G. Criscione-Schreiber, director of Duke University’s rheumatology fellowship program in Durham, N.C., has noticed fewer young professionals who are interested in careers as physician-scientists. While plenty of applicants want to become clinical rheumatologists or perhaps to participate in clinical research, a dwindling number view the life of a physician-scientist as appealing.
“They’re scared,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said in an interview. “They look at their faculty members, and they see people who are killing themselves to get grants. They see people who are well-established faculty members still struggling to get themselves funded. They look at that as what their life is going to be like, and they say, ‘No thanks.’ ”
Funding is one of many barriers for rheumatologists who consider physician-scientist careers. A recent study in Arthritis Care & Research found that money and mentoring – or lack thereof – were the primary reasons that rheumatologists steered clear of careers in academic research. The study analyzed 430 responses from American College of Rheumatology (ACR) members from January 2014 to March 2014 about research participation, barriers and facilitators to research careers, reasons for leaving research careers and ways to support junior investigators. Clinical workload, insufficient protected time, lower salary, and lack of institutional research infrastructure also ranked as top barriers to physician-scientist careers, the study found. Facilitators to research careers on the other hand, included sufficient funding, protected research time, outstanding mentors, institutional support and funding for young investigators and personal traits such as hard work, resilience and initiative (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 [doi:10.1002/acr.22569]).
Investigators had expected that funding would rate high among obstacles for rheumatologist-scientists, according to the first author of the study, Dr. Alexis R. Ogdie-Beatty of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Sharp declines in the National Institutes of Health’s budget have led to widespread decreases in the number of mentored awards for physician-scientists, including basic science and clinical science awards. NIH’s 2013 budget was 22% below its 2003 funding level, according to a 2014 NIH workforce report. For the rheumatology community, the funding constraints translated to a 30% decrease in individual investigator RO1 grants awarded to ACR members from 2010 to 2014, according to an editorial published with the Arthritis Care & Research study (Arthritis Care Res. 2015 Feb. 23 [doi:10.1002/acr.22570]).
“It’s difficult to get funding,” said Dr. Ogdie-Beatty, who is part of the ACR’s Young Investigators Committee. “Supporting your salary is really hard. Institutions have less money to support their young investigators.”
NIH’s low funding rate, combined with other challenges that physician-investigators face, is resulting in a shrinking pool of rheumatologists who pursue such careers, added Dr. David S. Pisetsky, a rheumatologist-immunologist, a basic science researcher, and professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C.
“Coupled with career stress, financial pressures, and difficulties in balancing family and personal issues with the tenuous nature of academics, the pursuit of an investigative career is perceived as too long and hard, especially as the funding situation appears to be persistent and systemwide,” Dr. Pisetsky said in an interview.
A more complex barrier to physician-scientist careers among rheumatologists is that of mentoring, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. Lack of mentorship and lack of access to key people within the field were the top obstacles reported by survey participants. Because rheumatology divisions are often small within academic medical centers, it may be challenging to locate a mentor, particularly within a specific research methodology, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty noted. At the same time, some mentees may have unrealistic expectations of mentors or trouble managing the relationship.
“Mentors are busy because they’re trying to support their own careers, so getting a fully accessible mentor may be difficult,” Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said. “The more time they spend with a mentee, the more time they’re not spending on the grants and the papers they need to get to support their own careers.”
Some survey participants also indicated that gender issues remain a barrier in pursuing a career in research and that a lack of flexibility in grants for time off to have children and the ability to work part time prevented their continuing research careers.
“The traditional structure of an academic career was never designed for women,” Dr. Criscione-Schreiber said. “A young women who finishes [her] fellowship and has a child or who may be planning to have a child in the next couple years is looking at this potential career of writing grants and doing research that’s time limited and time determined. [She is] thinking about child care and nannies and [wondering], ‘How can I make this work?’ I think a lot of people get scared off before they even start.”
Rheumatology experts say focusing on possible strategies to help physician-scientists excel could improve the landscape for young doctors and grow the field. Ideas generated from the study include: developing a formal cross-institutional mentoring network, lobbying for increased NIH funding, and working with institutions to educate division chiefs and fellowship directors on the needs of young investigators.
Another way to improve the climate for young investigators would be to expedite the time it takes to complete training, said Dr. Mark H. Ginsberg, director of the physician-scientist training pathway program at the University of California, San Diego. The long journey through medical school, MD-PhD programs, and clinical training is too much for some young doctors to tackle, he said. “Time is really a big issue for physician-scientists,” Dr. Ginsberg said. “It’s a huge, long stretch. What it really means is the only people who are really going to succeed in this are people who are absolutely determined to do so.”
Dr. Ginsberg suggests abbreviating some of that time and creating more research tracks that effectively shave a year or more off training. Finding ways to incrementally increase the often-low salaries of physician-scientists during training would also be helpful, he said.
Rheumatology leaders also point to existing programs that already are helping to improve opportunities for physician-scientists. For example, the ACR’s ACR/CARRA Mentoring Interest Group (AMIGO) works at matching pediatric rheumatology fellows and junior faculty with mentors of similar interests at other institutions. The program runs in partnership with the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA). Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said the model has been successful and could potentially be expanded to include adult rheumatologists. Additionally, the Rheumatology Research Foundation recently created a new grant – called the Career Development Bridge Funding Award: K Supplement – to help aid researchers who are transitioning from junior to independent investigator.
The ACR’s Young Investigators Committee is currently exploring further ideas that arose during the survey, such as the creation of a list serve or blog site for young rheumatology investigators to share thoughts and information.
“I hope the impact of the study is that rheumatology division chiefs and people who support rheumatology will see this is really a critical need and that together, we can come up with some solutions to help young investigators” succeed, Dr. Ogdie-Beatty said.
On Twitter @legal_med
