Centralized oversight of physician-scientist faculty development at Vanderbilt: early outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
In 2000, faced with a national concern over the decreasing number of physician-scientists, Vanderbilt School of Medicine established the institutionally funded Vanderbilt Physician-Scientist Development (VPSD) program to provide centralized oversight and financial support for physician-scientist career development. In 2002, Vanderbilt developed the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Vanderbilt Clinical Research Scholars (VCRS) program using a similar model of centralized oversight. The authors evaluate the impact of the VPSD and VCRS programs on early career outcomes of physician-scientists.


METHODS
Physician-scientists who entered the VPSD or VCRS programs from 2000 through 2006 were compared with Vanderbilt physician-scientists who received NIH career development funding during the same period without participating in the VPSD or VCRS programs.


RESULTS
Seventy-five percent of VPSD and 60% of VCRS participants achieved individual career award funding at a younger age than the comparison cohort. This shift to career development award funding at a younger age among VPSD and VCRS scholars was accompanied by a 2.6-fold increase in the number of new K awards funded and a rate of growth in K-award dollars at Vanderbilt that outpaced the national rate of growth in K-award funding.


CONCLUSIONS
Analysis of the early outcomes of the VPSD and VCRS programs suggests that centralized oversight can catalyze growth in the number of funded physician-scientists at an institution. Investment in this model of career development for physician-scientists may have had an additive effect on the recruitment and retention of talented trainees and junior faculty.
Brown
Abigail M
AM
Programs of Clinical and Translational Scientist Development and Biomedical Research Education and Training, Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-6602, USA. nancy.j.brown@vanderbilt.edu
Morrow
Jason D
JD
Limbird
Lee E
LE
Byrne
Daniel W
DW
Gabbe
Steven G
SG
Balser
Jeffrey R
JR
Brown
Nancy J
NJ
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002321:Career Choice; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000191:economics; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D005381:Financing, Organized / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010820:Physicians / Q000191:economics* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011786:Quality Control; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000191:economics* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013714:Tennessee; D014481:United States