The Careers and Professional Activities of Graduates
of the NIGMS Medical Scientist Training Program
September 1998
Notes and References
1 National Institutes of Health. NIH predoctoral research training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences: outcomes for 1982-92 Ph.D.s. Report in preparation.
2 The National Research Service Act was initially passed in 1974 and is the current authorizing legislation for the National Institutes of Health’s research training programs.
3 See Appendix Table 1 (in Appendix IV) for annual data on funded programs.
4 National Institute of General Medical Sciences. MSTP evaluation. NIGMS Publication No. 79-401. Bethesda, MD: NIGMS, NIH, 1980.
5 Sherman CR, Jolly HP, Morgan TE, Higgins EJ, Hollander D, Bryll T, Sevilla ER. On the status of medical school faculty and clinical research manpower, 1968-1990: a report to the clinical sciences panel of the committee on a study of national needs for biomedical and behavioral research personnel. NIH Publication No. 82-2458. Bethesda, MD: NIH, 1981.
6 Bradford WD, Pizzo S, Christakos AC. Careers and professional activities of graduates of a medical scientist training program. Journal of Medical Education 1986;61:915-8.
7 Bradford WD, Anthony D, Chu CT, Pizzo SV. Career characteristics of graduates of a medical scientist training program, 1970-1990. Academic Medicine 1996;71:484-7.
8 Frieden C, Fox BJ. Career choices of graduates from Washington University's Medical Scientist Training Program. Academic Medicine 1991;66:162-4.
9 McClellan DA, Talalay P. M.D.-Ph.D. training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1962-1991. Academic Medicine 1992;67:36-41.
10 Martin JB. Training physician-scientists for the 1990s. Academic Medicine 1991;66:123-9.
11 Ahrens EH Jr. The crisis in clinical research: overcoming institutional obstacles. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
12 Sutton J, Killian CD. The M.D.-Ph.D. researcher: what species of investigator? Academic Medicine 1996;71:454-9.
13 Throughout this report, cohorts are referred to by the last year of each of these ranges. For example, the 1975 cohort refers to graduates who received their Ph.D. degrees in 1971 through 1975.
14 All individuals in the 1971-75 cohort were selected due to its small sample size (n = 51).
15 Some reassignments among groups were necessary as a result of more complete information on degree status contained in curricula vitae collected from study participants. For example, 25 individuals originally in the MSTP M.D. only group were found to have received Ph.D. degrees and were either reassigned to the MSTP graduates group or were excluded from the study for not having received coterminous degrees by 1990.
16 See Appendix II for a more detailed description of the matching procedures.
17 This is partly attributable to problems with the completeness of M.D. degree data prior to 1980, which may have also affected the accurate identification of the 1975-79 cohort and the degrees received.
18 In addition to participation in an MSTP training program, these outcome measures could be influenced by other differences between MSTP graduates and members of the comparison groups. For example, among those individuals for whom curricula vitae were available, MSTP graduates differed from some of the comparison groups in certain respects: compared to the M.D. only group, a smaller proportion of MSTP graduates were female; compared to Ph.D. graduates, a larger proportion of MSTP graduates were underrepresented minorities; and MSTP graduates received, on average, more months of NIH predoctoral training support than the comparison groups consisting of former NIH trainees. MSTP graduates also differed from M.D.-Ph.D.s from non-MSTP institutions in their field of Ph.D. (for example, M.D.-Ph.D.s from non-MSTP institutions were more likely than MSTP graduates to receive Ph.D. degrees in pharmacology). Although differences in the field of Ph.D. degree could be related to differences in publication patterns and other outcomes, sample sizes (relative to the number of field categories) were too small to permit adjustments for group differences on this variable. An attempt was made to cluster degree fields into a smaller number of categories that might account for differences between these groups in publications, but no consistent relationship across cohorts between field of degree and number of publications was found. For most of the outcome measures examined, gender, race/ethnicity, and months of NIH research training support were included as covariates in the analyses and any effects they had on the results are noted.
19 Due to the skewed distribution of these data, nonparametric analyses were used to compare groups.
20 Records of NIH research project grant applications and awards identify only the principal investigator. Co-investigators and principal investigators of subprojects in program project or center grants are not included in these data.
21 The difference between MSTP graduates and graduates of non-MSTP institutions did not reach statistical significance in the 1990 cohort. However, these data are the most severely curtailed due to the unavailability of grant application records beyond fiscal year 1996.
22 See Appendix III for definitions and examples of sources of support.
23 To adjust for skewness in the publications data, comparisons between groups were based on the log number of publications. Summary statistics for numbers of publications by group and cohort are shown in Appendix Table 5 in Appendix IV.
24 Nearly all respondents in this study were employed in 1995 (the latest year for which data were collected) except the most recent cohort of graduates, of whom about 70 percent were employed. Those who were not employed were engaged in postdoctoral study or additional clinical training.
25 See, for example, Table C2 of AAMC data book: statistical information related to medical education. Washington, DC: Association of American Medical Colleges, 1998.
26 A small percentage of appointments (1 percent) were unclassified.
27 Clinically related positions include those with some form of clinical activity (see Appendix III for definition) and appointments in clinical academic departments.
28 Not shown are small percentages of publications in a fourth category consisting of social and behavioral science journals. These publications represented less than 1 percent of all publications.
29 Some portion of these differences between MSTP graduates and the comparison groups may be attributable to factors other than the MSTP support. Selection factors that determine which institutions are awarded MSTP grants (for example, the existence of active, high-quality research programs) and that determine which students at an MSTP institution receive support may also contribute to differences in outcomes between groups. These selection factors are confounding variables that make it difficult to estimate the extent to which differences in outcomes are attributable directly to the effects of the MSTP training experience itself.
30 No difference is found between groups when the number of months of NIH predoctoral research training support is statistically controlled.
31 In identifying candidates for the MSTP study and comparison groups, three data sets were used: the NIH Trainee-Fellow File; the National Research Council's Doctorate Record File; and data provided by the AAMC. As necessary, other sources were used (e.g., the Faculty Roster System developed by the AAMC). Quantum Research Corporation provided assistance in creating the study groups under contract N01-OD-2-2113, and the AAMC provided the data used to identify M.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. recipients under contract N01-OD-2-2112.
32 These included bioengineering and all other fields not classified as in the biomedical sciences (e.g., chemistry, psychology, and economics).
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