Physician-scientist

A physician-scientist (in North American English) or clinician-scientist (in British English^[1] and Australian English^[2]) is a physician who divides their professional time between direct clinical practice with patients and scientific research.^[1] Physician-scientists traditionally hold both a medical degree and a doctor of philosophy, also known as an MD-PhD.^{[citation needed]} Compared to other clinicians, physician-scientists invest significant time and professional effort in scientific research, with ratios of research to clinical time ranging from 50/50 to 80/20.^{[citation needed]}

Physician-scientists are often employed by academic or research institutions where they drive innovation across a wide range of medical specialties and may also use their extensive training to focus their clinical practices on specialized patient populations, such as those with rare genetic diseases or cancers. Although they are a minority of both practicing physicians and active research scientists, physician-scientists are often cited as playing a critical role in translational medicine and clinical research by adapting biomedical research findings to health care applications.^[3][4] Over time, the term physician scientist has expanded to holders of other clinical degrees—such as nurses, dentists, and veterinarians—who are also included by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) in its studies of the physician-scientist workforce (PSW).^[5]