Emergency medicine residency pathways for MD/PhD trainees: A national cross‐sectional study of physician‐scientist training programs

AbstractBackgroundCombined clinical and research training is common in residency programs outside emergency medicine (EM), and these pathways are particularly valuable for combined MD/PhD graduates planning to pursue a career as a physician‐scientist. However, EM departments may not know what resources to provide these trainees during residency to create research‐focused, productive, future faculty, and trainees may not know which programs support their goal of becoming a physician‐scientist in EM. The objective of this study was to describe research training and resources available to MD/PhD graduates in EM residency training with a focus on dedicated research pathways.MethodsThis study was a cross‐sectional inventory conducted through an electronic survey of EM residency program directors. We sought to identify dedicated MD/PhD research training pathways, with a focus on both resources and training priorities. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize survey responses.ResultsWe collected 192 survey responses (69.6% response rate). Among respondents, 41 programs (21.4%) offered a research pathway/track, 52 (27.4%) offered a research fellowship, 22 (11.5%) offered both a residency research pathway/track and a research fellowship, and two (1.0%) offered a dedicated EM physician‐scientist training pathway. Most programs considered research a priority and were enthusiastic about interviewing applicants planning a research career, but recruitment of physician‐scientist applicants was not generally prioritized.ConclusionsSome EM residency programs offer combined clinical and mentored research training for prospective physician‐scientists, and nearly all residency programs considered research important. Future work will focus on improving the EM physician‐scientist pipeline by optimizing pathways available to trainees during residency and fellowship.