Fixing the leaky physician‐scientist pipeline: Integrated–dedicated research period programs in emergency medicine

Abstract

Emergency physicians (EPs) are well positioned to perform medical research. EPs are exposed to a wide range of disease types, medical specialties, and treatment modalities. Furthermore, emergency medicine (EM) serves as the safety net for the U.S. health care system. The diverse exposure provides a vast opportunity for EP to perform many worthwhile research projects. Yet, EM has historically had the lowest amount of funding and a lower number of National Institutes of Health–funded research projects. Many suggest the etiology is a “leaky” educational pipeline with loss of many potential physician‐scientists over the training and development course. Current research training options for the EM physician‐scientist includes MD‐PhD, 4‐year EM residency program and postresidency fellowships. While each has its advantages and disadvantages, we describe an additional educational alternative of EM physician‐scientists, which we have named the integrated–dedicated research period within an EM residency. We describe the features of these programs and preliminary results from the graduates and current trainees.