Mount Sinai StARR Program - NIAID - Project Summary
The number of physician-scientists in the United States has decreased from its peak of 5% in 1980 to
1.5% today. This decline particularly threatens Pediatrics and child health research where only 12.6% of all
MD/PhD program graduates choose residency training in Pediatrics and in Internal Medicine, while 40% of U.S.
MD/PhD graduates enter Internal Medicine residency programs, these trainees only account for 3.6% of all
Internal Medicine trainees. Of those, smaller numbers train in infectious diseases, clinical immunology and
rheumatology. Together, these data represent a critical need, and opportunity, for new and sustained efforts to
reinvigorate the physician-scientist pipeline infectious diseases, allergy and immunologic diseases. The Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is well poised to answer this call for novel on-ramps into the Physician-
Scientist Pathway during residency given its established infrastructure for Research Tracks in Residency which
successfully track accomplished researchers to academic research-focused fellowships and are synergistic with
this proposal. The opportunity to cultivate opportunities for research during residency is ideally suited to our
robust translational research programs. Our excellence in biomedical research across the basic, clinical, and
translational spectrum, along with the ability to individualize and adapt to each physician-scientist trainee, makes
our environment an ideal place to train future physician-scientists. The Mount Sinai Stimulating Access to
Research in Residency (StARR) is a new program to enhance physician-scientist research training opportunities
related to the mission of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). Mount Sinai StARR will
provide Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residents an entrez into the physician-scientist pipeline, especially
focused on those with a passion for inquiry, but who may not have had extensive research experience--the “late
bloomers”. The program will provide a stepwise introduction to investigative research to recruit resident trainees
and will be an attractive recruiting tool across and outside the Mount Sinai Health System that will build an
immersive individualized research experience with the goal of accelerating and retaining research independence
for resident investigators.
