Medical Scientist Training Program - The mission of the University of Minnesota Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) is to train and support an exceptional community of dedicated students to become physician scientists who are able to integrate their scientific, clinical, and leadership skills to promote human health. Our program objectives are to: 1) recruit, admit, and matriculate trainees with the potential and commitment to successfully pursue a sustained physician scientist research career; 2) provide rigorous training so that trainees gain the technical, operational, intellectual, and professional skills required for sustained success, and successfully graduate and confidently move forward to the next stage of their physician scientist career; 3) utilize a rigorous evaluation and assessment plan to make evidence-based program improvements that will help us meet our program goals and mission. Our training program emphasizes integration of research and medical training through all phases, flexibility to meet the needs of individual trainees, rigorous training in the highest standards of practice in biomedical research by outstanding faculty committed to mentoring, and a cohort-based training approach that builds professional identity as a physician scientist and promotes student retention, success and well-being. Trainees pursue PhD training in a wide range of scientific disciplines, including biomedical engineering, public health, medicinal chemistry, and bioinformatics and computational biology. A new revised MD curriculum provides additional protected time for research early in training. Structured clinical continuity experiences during the PhD phase provide opportunities for career discernment, continued development of clinical skills, and expansion of a mentor network. Program activities guide trainees through key transition points in training. The program provides ongoing academic and professional development support with an MSTP-specific Individual Development Plan (IDP), regular progress meetings, and a commitment to always being accessible to trainees and knowledgeable about their goals and aspirations. We successfully matriculate 10 trainees per year from a large applicant pool that has increased in the last 5 years. Our trainees have an outstanding publication record and a high rate of success in obtaining external fellowships. Our graduates match into outstanding PSTP and residency programs and are well positioned to advance their physician scientist research careers. We seek NIH support so that we can continue to strengthen the physician scientist workforce, contributing to important biomedical progress by successfully training and graduating the next generation of physician scientist leaders.
