Fig. 1

Pathways to become a physician-scientist. The figure depicts the pathways open to college students in the US; it does not include time a student may spend on post-baccalaureate activities, such as working as a technician in a research laboratory. The most straightforward path is to matriculate into an MD-PhD Program and pursue postgraduate clinical and research training after graduation from the MD-PhD Program. Some students may not be aware of the combined-degree path, or may not be ready to commit to the length training (8 years on average), and matriculate into MD programs, where they become interested in pursuing a research career; they may then be able to transfer into an MD-PhD program affiliated with their medical school, or they may graduate and pursue more extensive postdoctoral research training. Other students want to pursue a research career, but become interested in translational/clinical research during/after their PhD training. They can matriculate into MD programs and pursue postgraduate clinical and research training after receiving their MD. Transfers from PhD to MD-PhD programs tend to be rare, as reflected in the stippled path