2023 National MD-PHD Association Conference

Bethesda, MD

July 18, 2023

Conference Themes

  • Encouraging early exposure: One of the best ways to create a pipeline of physician-scientists is to encourage early exposure to research during undergraduate studies, medical school, and residency. Programs should be developed to provide students with research opportunities and mentorship.

  • Reducing financial barriers: One of the biggest challenges for physician-scientists is the cost of education and training. To address this issue, more funding opportunities, such as scholarships, grants, and loan forgiveness programs, should be made available to physician-scientists.

  • Addressing diversity: The physician-scientist workforce should be more diverse and representative of the population it serves. Efforts should be made to increase diversity in the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities.

  • Streamlining training: The training pathway for physician-scientists should be streamlined to reduce the time and financial burden. This can be done by reducing redundancies in training and increasing opportunities for integrated training programs.

  • Mentorship and support: Physician-scientists require strong mentorship and support throughout their careers. Programs should be developed to provide mentorship opportunities, career development, and support for work-life balance.

 

Physician Scientist Careers

Physician-Scientists are physicians (MDs or DOs with or without additional degrees, such as PhD, MPH, MS, MSPH, DrPH) who devote regular components of their professional effort to both seeking new knowledge about health, disease or delivery of patient care through research and providing patient care.  The pipeline for this workforce includes all MD and DO students (whether they are pursuing a combined advanced degree or not) and residents/fellows who discover an interest in combining research with their clinical career at any point in the training process. 

MDPhD Association Initiatives

The MD-PhD Association has several initiatives:

  • Increasing our interaction with Research Residency and Fellowship Directors

  • Enhanced communication about physician scientist careers and contributions

  • Optimizing leadership for longitudinal physician scientist training

  • Highlighting the accomplishments of MD-PhD students and the role of federal funding in scientific training and discovery

Association Member Services

The MD-PhD Association is composed of MD-PhD and Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Directors and Administrators.  The Association sponsors yearly meetings of our membership and helps to advocate for MD-PhD Training nationally.