The clinician-artificial intelligence scientist: a proposed career pathway in medicine

Traditionally, the clinician-scientist has played a key role in translating fundamental discoveries into clinical practice across multiple medical disciplines. As medicine enters the era of artificial intelligence (AI), a similar role is needed to bridge the gap between technological development and meaningful clinical implementation-a role we term the clinician-AI scientist. In this Viewpoint, we examine the distinctive role, challenges, and development strategies of this potentially new career pathway for clinicians. We argue that the clinician-AI scientist should have sufficient training and expertise in both clinical and technical domains, together with an understanding of implementation science across the entire AI development-to-adoption lifecycle. We analyse the historical development of the traditional clinician-scientist role and discuss how this model can be adapted to meet the unique needs of the clinician-AI scientist. Finally, we propose targeted strategies for clinicians, institutions, and professional organisations to cultivate a pool of clinician-AI scientists and help realise the transformative potential of AI in medicine.