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Rationale: The Parker B. Francis (PBF) Fellowship Program has supportedmore than 750M.D.,M.D./Ph.D., and Ph.D. fellows since1976, but there is littleinformationabout theeffectiveness oftheprogramin fostering successful careers and producing important research.
Objectives: To survey all past PBF Fellows to obtain information about their productivity and career pathways.
Methods:We obtainede-mail addresses for526(74%)of the712PBF awardees from 1976 to 2006, then sent an e-mail survey to the 526 past fellows and received 365 replies (69% response rate, 49% overall). Survey questions addressed time in research, areas of research, current position and responsibilities, and research funding.
Measurements andMain Results: Seventy percent of the 365 respondents spend 25% or greater effort in research and 56% report 50% ormore effort in research.Respondents havepublishedanaverage of 2.7 peer-reviewed publications per year, totaling more than 15,678 peer-reviewed publications, of which 1,875 appeared in high-impact journals. Respondents have received more than $1.8 billion in direct research funding since their PBF Fellowships began. Ph.D. awardees spend more time in research than M.D. awardees, and current research effort did not differ by gender. PBF awardees have become prominent leaders in universities, the National Institutes of Health, health care, and industry.
Conclusions: The PBF Program has been highly successful in producing a large number of scientific and clinical leaders in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Theresults provide comprehensive data about the success of this career developmentprogramandprovide a model for programs designed to build the workforce in pulmonary and critical care medicine.
Keywords: research training; fellowship support; survey; career development
Advancements in medical knowledge involve collaborations by multidisciplinary teams working on important clinical problems in patient care. Because these teams include clinical scientistswith M.D. training and laboratory scientists with M.D. or Ph.D. training, the support of scientific career development for clinical and laboratory-based scientists is an essential part of increasing the pipeline of qualified investigators who can advance patient care through medical research (1).
The Parker B. Francis (PBF) Fellowship Program was inaugurated in 1975 to support career development for clinical and laboratory scientists embarking on careers in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine.More than 750 people have received support, and many of the awardees have had distinguished research and clinical careers, but comprehensive data about the effectiveness of this and other such programs have not been readily available.
We...