Medicine is changing. The realities of how managed health care dictates the way physicians practice medicine will need to be coupled with a vast array of new technologic capacity and the emergence of molecular medicine. Every aspect of these changes will require physicians who have the training to lead the discovery, translation and implementation of new paradigms of diagnosis and treatment as well as evaluation of the outcome of these changes.

Physician scientists must be trained in a vast variety of fields from the basic biological sciences, biomedical engineering, information technology, epidemiology, statistics to the social sciences if medicine is going to fulfill the expectations of society. It is therefore paramount that the training of the new generation of physicians includes those with a strong commitment to academics as well as patient care. Undertaking a dual degree is such a commitment.

— Michael Seldin, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Physician Scientist Training Program