Formal degree programs in physiology promote careers of clinical scientists and benefit basic science departments

Physiologists may play critical roles in the development of clinician-scientists who aspire to an academic career. The complexity of contemporary biomedical science and economic matters regarding postgraduate education pose real conundrums. We report a more than 22-year follow-up of surgical trainees pursuing bench laboratory science experience through a collaboration between a physiology postgraduate program and a surgical researcher program within a single public medical school. The sources and resources include selection, funding, physiology classroom work, and laboratory studies with personal involvement by faculty that have seldom been recorded, especially with longer term career outcomes. These selected PhD candidates have subsequently pursued several lines of activity, many with distinguished careers and major influences upon future generations of academic surgeons.