The number of physician scientists, in both adult and pediatric medicine, is declining despite an overall increase the total number of physicians. Without a substantial increase the pool of early stage physicians interested in embarking on a research career, the shortfall of successful physician scientists will worsen. Although the reasons are complex and are in part because of the increasing challenge of sustaining a successful research career, an identified and possibly remediable cause is the high attrition rate of potential research capable physicians at the residency stage of training. We now propose a University of Cincinnati (UC)-StARR program focused on identifying internal medicine residents with an interest in a research career. Once identified, we will mentor them through a flexible combined didactic and research experience that places them in a competitive position to pursue a successful physician-scientist career. The overall goal is to increase the pipeline of internal residents earmarked for research-oriented academic careers. We will complement programs that we already have in place at that are primarily focused on fellowship level training. We propose the following: 1) establish a cadre of well-funded NHLBI investigators from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center experienced in training physician scientists in standard disciplines and peds-to-adult transition medicine, 2) recruit high quality resident- investigators from of a pool of qualified and diverse candidates within our internal medicine residency program, 3) implement a unique curriculum that caters to the residents’ different prior experience to complement our existing programs; this will include online courses and a three month elective/workshop during the first half of PGY2 year followed by formal course work during PGY3 year that concludes with a dedicated Research Block during the PGY3 year, and 4) implement an individualized resident-investigator development plan and then evaluate and ensure success by engaging in a validated, state-of-the-art, and real time learning based online evaluation system. In summary, UC-StARR will build upon existing programmatic infrastructure to that brings together 18 experienced, well-funded mentors within the fields of cardiovascular, pulmonary and critical care medicine. The proposal is innovative because we are coupling this not only with our validated and nationally recognized system that enhances resident learning and tracks outcomes but also with our existing largely fellow-focused research investments. The combination of catering to the special needs of residents and training them in a logical sequence on the principles of research is likely to have a significant impact on increasing the number of Internal Medicine physician-scientists being trained at UC. We would expect that this model, if further validated, could serve as readily implemented template for other Internal Medicine residency programs.

Without a substantial increase the pool of early stage physicians interested in embarking on a research career, the shortfall of successful physician scientists will continue to worsen. We propose to address this challenge by instituting a program, University of Cincinnati-StARR, that provides internal medicine residents interested in a research career with the research tools available at UC as well as Cincinnati Children’s (CCHMC) to then transition to academic fellowships and a successful physician scientist career. This will complement an infrastructure that is already in place at that has focused more on enhancing academic fellowship training.