The Parker B. Francis Fellowship Program: analysis of 31 years of career development support

The Parker B. Francis (PBF) Fellowship Program has supported more than 750 M.D., M.D./Ph.D., and Ph.D. fellows since 1976, but there is little information about the effectiveness of the program in fostering successful careers and producing important research.

To survey all past PBF Fellows to obtain information about their productivity and career pathways.

We obtained e-mail addresses for 526 (74%) of the 712 PBF 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.

Seventy percent of the 365 respondents spend 25% or greater effort in research and 56% report 50% or more effort in research. Respondents have published an average 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.

The PBF Program has been highly successful in producing a large number of scientific and clinical leaders in pulmonary and critical care medicine. The results provide comprehensive data about the success of this career development program and provide a model for programs designed to build the workforce in pulmonary and critical care medicine.