Dataset Information

Changing Demographics of NIDDK-Funded Physician-Scientists Doing Kidney Research.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Although US physician-scientists have made enormous contributions to biomedical research, this workforce is thought to be getting smaller. However, among kidney researchers, changes have not been fully quantified.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

We mined National Institutes of Health RePORTER to explore demographic changes of early-career and established physician and nonphysician principal investigators doing kidney-focused research. We searched for National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)-funded K series and R01 awards focused on the kidney that were active between 1990 and 2020 and determined if their emphasis was basic or clinical science. We then used public databases available on the internet to determine if these funded investigators were physicians or nonphysicians, the year in which they received either their MD (physicians) or their terminal graduate degree (nonphysicians), their sex, and whether they received their terminal degree from a US or international institution.

Results

Kidney-focused R01-funded principal investigators are aging, particularly among physicians. Moreover, the relative representation of physicians among both early-career and established principal investigators is falling, particularly among those doing basic science research. In contrast, the number and relative representation of nonphysician-scientists are increasing. There is also greater representation of women and international graduates among physician and nonphysician R01-funded, kidney-focused NIDDK investigators. However, although there are greater numbers of women physician principal investigators doing both basic as well as clinical research, women physician principal investigators are increasingly more likely to do clinical rather than basic science research.

Conclusions

The physician-scientist workforce is increasingly made up of women and international medical graduates. However, the physician-scientist workforce is older and represents a smaller proportion of all principal investigators, particularly among those doing basic science research.

SUBMITTER: Abood DC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8729586 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Changing Demographics of NIDDK-Funded Physician-Scientists Doing Kidney Research.

Abood Delaney C DC King Spencer A SA Eaton Douglas C DC Wall Susan M SM

Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN 20210714 9

<h4>Background and objectives</h4>Although US physician-scientists have made enormous contributions to biomedical research, this workforce is thought to be getting smaller. However, among kidney researchers, changes have not been fully quantified.<h4>Design, setting, participants, & measurements</h4>We mined National Institutes of Health RePORTER to explore demographic changes of early-career and established physician and nonphysician principal investigators doing kidney-focused research. We sea ...[more]

PMID: 34261761

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Dataset Information

Changing Demographics of NIDDK-Funded Physician-Scientists Doing Kidney Research.

Background and objectives

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Changing Demographics of NIDDK-Funded Physician-Scientists Doing Kidney Research.

Similar Datasets

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