But either way, you can probably imagine that this work is kind of a niche within a niche and there were very few options of academic medical centers where I found suitable basic science mentors and supportive clinical departments. Maybe this was too broad of a clinical interest and maybe family medicine wasn’t the best specialty for research but I also thought this was kind of a creative way that I could use my basic science skills to help understand these complex patients that are getting lost in the cracks of the medical treatment behemoth. My vision was that as a family medicine physician I would take care of women during pregnancy, take care of kids with developmental problems, and also manage substance use disorders. I wanted to be a family medicine clinician working on the molecular mechanisms of alcohol and drugs affecting the placenta. sidenote - I should say that the kind of physician-scientist I wanted to be was kind of a weird niche. Most of the conversations went nowhere but the rare conversation progressed a little. When it came time to my job search I spent a whole lot of time cold-emailing department chairs and various administrators about the vague possibility of a physician-scientist job. I went to an MD PhD program, got a PhD in molecular biology, competed for NIH grants, and developed a coherent vision for how my clinical and research worlds would overlap. I also wanted the job to be intellectually stimulating, and sometime around 10 years ago I decided the best path was the academic physician-scientist. I wanted to help people that I was uniquely suited to help, people that wouldn’t get help without me. For years I’ve wanted a job that combined interesting and helpful. I browsed all sorts of jobs in all sorts of places, but what I really wanted was an academic job. Let me try to explain.Ībout a month ago I graduated residency and over the past year I poured mental energy into analyzing my first post-training job.
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