From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs
There are about 200 accredited medical schools in the United States. Among these, about 160 are allopathic (MD) and nearly 40 schools are osteopathic (DO). Collectively, these schools graduate over 28,000 physicians each year. In addition, over 75% of the MD schools have MD/PhD programs that train p...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Education |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1642042/full |
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| author | Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre |
| author_facet | Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre |
| author_sort | Yohannes T. Ghebre |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There are about 200 accredited medical schools in the United States. Among these, about 160 are allopathic (MD) and nearly 40 schools are osteopathic (DO). Collectively, these schools graduate over 28,000 physicians each year. In addition, over 75% of the MD schools have MD/PhD programs that train physician-scientists. Despite these relentless efforts to prepare physicians to become scientists who comprehensively understand the molecular basis of diseases and facilitate drug discovery and development efforts, there remains a notable shortage of physician-scientists. Although training established PhD-level scientists to become physicians is an attractive strategy to mitigate the shortage, there doesn't appear to be a well-defined path that trains PhDs to earn their medical degree. This problem is even more daunting for PhDs who trained outside the United States or Canada. This review highlights the advantages of training established biomedical scientists to become physicians and makes a case for medical schools to launch PhD-to-MD or PhD-to-DO programs to equip these scientists with clinical acumen to help bridge the widening gap between basic science research and clinical care as well as to mitigate our heavy and unsustainable reliance on international medical graduates to supply our medical workforce. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dd4a67ae5c6d49cbbbf52fbb9b1edbd6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2504-284X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-dd4a67ae5c6d49cbbbf52fbb9b1edbd62025-08-20T03:31:38ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Education2504-284X2025-07-011010.3389/feduc.2025.16420421642042From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDsYohannes T. Ghebre0Yohannes T. Ghebre1Yohannes T. Ghebre2Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United StatesMays Cancer Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United StatesDepartment of Medicine. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, United StatesThere are about 200 accredited medical schools in the United States. Among these, about 160 are allopathic (MD) and nearly 40 schools are osteopathic (DO). Collectively, these schools graduate over 28,000 physicians each year. In addition, over 75% of the MD schools have MD/PhD programs that train physician-scientists. Despite these relentless efforts to prepare physicians to become scientists who comprehensively understand the molecular basis of diseases and facilitate drug discovery and development efforts, there remains a notable shortage of physician-scientists. Although training established PhD-level scientists to become physicians is an attractive strategy to mitigate the shortage, there doesn't appear to be a well-defined path that trains PhDs to earn their medical degree. This problem is even more daunting for PhDs who trained outside the United States or Canada. This review highlights the advantages of training established biomedical scientists to become physicians and makes a case for medical schools to launch PhD-to-MD or PhD-to-DO programs to equip these scientists with clinical acumen to help bridge the widening gap between basic science research and clinical care as well as to mitigate our heavy and unsustainable reliance on international medical graduates to supply our medical workforce.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1642042/fullPhD-to-MDPhD-to-DObench-to-bedsidebedside-to-benchphysician-scientist |
| spellingShingle | Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre Yohannes T. Ghebre From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs Frontiers in Education PhD-to-MD PhD-to-DO bench-to-bedside bedside-to-bench physician-scientist |
| title | From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs |
| title_full | From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs |
| title_fullStr | From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs |
| title_full_unstemmed | From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs |
| title_short | From bench to bedside: a call to expand physician pathways for PhDs |
| title_sort | from bench to bedside a call to expand physician pathways for phds |
| topic | PhD-to-MD PhD-to-DO bench-to-bedside bedside-to-bench physician-scientist |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1642042/full |
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