A scientist track investigator program to support early career outcomes for clinician scientists

C linician scientists, clinicians who devote most of their professional effort to creating new knowledge about health and disease through research, are critical to universities and academic health science centers. However, their numbers are declining, in part because of the challenges facing clinician scientists after obtaining their initial faculty appointment. Even clinician scientists with extensive research training during fellowship remain disadvantaged compared with their non-clinical PhD counterparts in the amount of time spent in research training and research productivity. Further research training, aimed at closing this gap, is often deterred by many factors, including the lack of welldefined research mentorship strategies. Accordingly, in 1996, the Department of Pediatrics and the Research Institute (RI) at The Hospital for Sick Children initiated a Scientist Track Investigator (STI) program designed as a mentored research junior faculty position to facilitate the transition from research training to independence. We report the elements of this program and associated outcomes.