Diabetes-Docs: Physician-Scientist Career Development Program (DiabDocs)

The prime objective of our multi-center National K12 “Diabetes-Docs: Physician-Scientist Career Development Program” (DiabDocs) is to support the research career development of the next generation of physician-scientists in basic and clinical diabetes for academic careers with a specific focus on type 1 diabetes and other forms of diabetes. Our structured K12 program is designed to provide a mentored research experience together with tailored career development training. We propose these aims to achieve the DiabDocs program goals: 1) Create a national cohort of up-and-coming physician-scientist researchers by developing cohesion through shared programmatic training cohort experiences including an annual retreat. 2) Expand the geographical and pipeline reach of K12 programs so that Scholars train locally while maintaining the historic strengths of the past institutional diabetes K12 programs. 3) Develop an outstanding national mentor community to train diabetes physician-scientists and provide a more visible pathway to research careers for medical students/residents/fellows by active recruitment programs and participation in the DiabDocs retreat and educational programs. 4) Ensure consistency and effectiveness of mentoring across research centers through shared mentor training and resources. In addition to our MPI structure, one of the distinguishing features of our program is that previously funded K12 Scholar program PIs and their experience are part of the DiabDocs Executive Leadership Committee complemented by the addition of two Adult Endocrinology physician-scientists with expertise in basic science, clinical science, and health services research. Monthly career development programming and local mentoring of K12 Scholars is supplemented by Scholar presentations at the DiabDocs annual retreat in the Spring and at the American Diabetes Association plus external ‘arm’s length’ mentors and a visiting K12 Scholars Program to engage experts at other institutions. The first 4 recruitment cycles (2 cycles in year 1 of grant) resulted in 72 letters of interest with 47 invited applications representing 28 unique institutions of which 24 were from institutions that did not previously have a diabetes related K12. With the start of Year 4 of DiabDocs we will have funded 24 K12 Scholars of whom 19 are from ‘new’ institutions. To date, 2 K12 Scholars have ‘graduated’ to their own K08/23 awards with 2 other awards in process and 9 additional K08/23 proposals submitted. Our K12 scholars will be well-positioned to serve as catalysts for multidisciplinary investigations bridging bench-to-bedside science leading to patient-centered discoveries. We are confident that we will continue to attract high caliber applicants and mentor them toward impactful careers in academic medicine as skilled physician-scientist leaders.