The number of US physician-scientists who conduct biomedical research as their primary profession has declined in the past 30 years, according to a report by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in Bethesda, Maryland. Physician Scientists: Assessing the Workforce finds that from 1982 to 2011, the proportion with medical degrees or MD-PhDs doing research fell from 3.6% to 1.6%. It attributes the decline to factors such as longer training periods and rising debt. But MD-PhD holders have an edge in a tight funding environment because of their skill set, says report co-author Howard Garrison, FASEBs deputy executive director for policy.
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