Australian clinician-researchers are at risk but not yet on the brink of extinction, an analysis of successful PhD candidates at the University of Sydney has concluded.
PhD degrees awarded to clinicians at the university’s medical school increased 2.4-fold between 1989 and 2008, with a recent dip, but in the same period the number awarded to non-medical graduates increased 10-fold.
Similarly, total NHMRC funding rose about 10-fold during the same period, but the number of grants led by physicians declined from 29% to 21%.
Dr Caroline Traill and colleagues, in a project led by Professor Alicia Jenkins, evaluated 303 registered medical practitioners awarded a PhD and will report their findings in the Internal Medicine Journal.
“Knowledge and actions are needed to protect our medical research capacity,” they concluded.
The physician-scientist was first described as a ‘dying breed’ in the United States in 1979, following a decline in the proportion of post-doctoral trainee positions and research fellowships awarded to physicians by the National Institutes of Health.