Medical Scientist Training at UMCMS - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Our MD-PhD Program was founded in 1983 and first obtained NIH MSTP funding in 2013. We currently have a steady enrollment of about 80 students at all stages at any given time. Our Institutional leadership is highly supportive of the Program, as is amply demonstrated by its investment in the Program. Our Program leadership changed in December 2021, interrupting T32 funding but enabling substantial positive changes. The Mission of the Program is to train a diverse group of physician-scientists who will excel in their chosen research fields through innovative and high-impact research. We prepare them to become leaders in academic medicine and other health-related enterprises. Our graduates will combine their investigative skills with their clinical experience and expertise to produce new knowledge that will improve the health of both individuals and populations. Our Objectives are that, throughout their professional careers, our trainees will 1) think critically and innovatively; 2) inform their research through clinical observation and, conversely, apply a hypothesis-driven approach to their care of patients; 3) conduct rigorous, reproducible, and transparent science as a fundamental focus of their professional activities; 4) collaborate effectively with other researchers in academia, government, and the private sector. Other programmatic objectives include 5) increasing faculty and student diversity, both scientific and sociodemographic; and 6) enhancing our mentoring and evaluation structures. Historically, MD-PhD programs have focused on the basic sciences, and UMass Chan has world-renowned basic scientists. However, our faculty also includes thought leaders in translational science, and in population health sciences, including epidemiology, biostatistics, health informatics, data science, and health equity research. We believe that physician-scientists trained in the population health will make significant contributions to improving the health of both individuals and populations, and that the scarcity of MD-PhD graduates with a focus on the population sciences is a missed opportunity for our country. We intend to maintain the size of our MD-PhD trainee group, but we aim to increase the proportion of trainees in the population sciences from about 10% to about 25%. Also, we have begun and will continue to restructure our Program with 1) markedly enhanced and longitudinal mentoring with Individual Development Plans (IDPs) playing a key role and centrally supported effort for mentors; 2) an intense focus on reducing time to dual degree (TTD) by eliminating redundancies in the medical and graduate school curricula, a structured and mentored approach to choosing thesis advisors, and requiring mentor training and attention to reducing TTD by thesis advisors ; 3) enhanced and early emphasis on research-intensive residency selection; and 4) an entirely revamped evaluation system, with dynamic data-driven feedback loops for Program improvement. We request 20 MSTP T32 slots each year, while institutional resources will directly defray over 80% of the cost of our MD-PhD Program. Our Vision is that all of our trainees will pursue careers as physician-scientists and contribute toward improving the health of individuals and populations through medicine-inspired scientific discovery.
