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Training family physicians as researchers: Outcomes over 15 years for Canada's first clinician scholar program
Melissa Workman1, Arianne Y K Albert2, Wendy V Norman3
1Medical student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Objective:
To examine characteristics at admission and subsequent academic achievements among the graduates of the first 15 years of the clinician scholar program (CSP), Canada's longest-running such program, housed at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Design:
Cross-sectional study with data gathered from program files, personal correspondence, and public sources.
Setting:
Vancouver.
Participants:
Graduates of the University of British Columbia CSP from 2001 to 2015.
Main Outcome Measures:
Characteristics at admission (years since medical school graduation, previous graduate degrees) and measures of scholarly success (peer-reviewed publications, subsequent graduate degrees, and academic faculty appointments).
Results:
We obtained data for all 40 CSP graduates. The median years since medical school graduation at admission to the CSP was 12 years (interquartile range of 8 to 19); 60% of entrants held no previous graduate degree. After CSP completion, 15% of graduates attained an academic faculty appointment and 23% published more than 2 peer-reviewed articles per year. Subsequent success was not diminished with increasing years since medical school graduation, nor was it diminished among those without a previous graduate degree. Clinician scholar program graduates who subsequently completed a graduate degree were significantly more likely (P = .01) to publish frequently. We noted a weak negative relationship between getting a subsequent degree and number of years since medical school graduation (odds ratio of 0.89, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.99, P = .04).
Conclusion:
We found family physicians interested in becoming researchers were usually highly experienced, with physicians entering the CSP a median of 12 years (interquartile range 8 to 19 years) after medical school graduation. Most went on to publish several papers and more than 20% maintained a productivity of more than 2 peer-reviewed papers per year. The mentorship program model during this first 15 years has been effective in training family physicians to begin clinician scholar careers, and has been built upon, with the introduction from 2013 to 2015 of an enhanced curriculum. Future quantitative and qualitative analysis of this program and others is important to better articulate the success of clinician scholars striving to understand and improve primary care and health for Canadians.