The creation of a new physician-scientist training program aimed at bridging internal medicine residency and basic science research is underway at UMass Chan Medical School.
The Robert W. Finberg Physician-Scientist Training Program is named in honor of the late Robert W. Finberg, MD, chair emeritus and distinguished professor of medicine, who was a highly accomplished physician, infectious disease researcher and teacher whose career spanned four decades. He served as chair of the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan for 21 years. Dr. Finberg died in 2021.
The new program was initiated by David McManus, MD’02, MSc’12, the Richard M. Haidack Professor of Medicine, chair and professor of medicine; and Katherine Fitzgerald, PhD, the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research Chair III, professor of medicine, associate vice provost for basic science research, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine, chief of the Division of Innate Immunity and director of the Program in Innate Immunity.
“Over the past several years, we’ve built on a really strong foundation that Dr. Finberg had developed in the Department of Medicine in both basic science and clinical research excellence. We’ve recruited several new chiefs into leadership roles, who run their own labs and are great exemplars of what it means to be a physician-scientist,” Dr. McManus said.
McManus said they decided to create a formal training program because such a program is sought after by many graduating MD/PhD students, including those from UMass Chan, who pursue residencies that already offer a similar program.
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McManus said the new program exists due in large part to the strong foundation of the existing internal medicine residency program and the Internal Medicine Residency Research Track, as well as the support of Scott Kopec, MD, associate professor of medicine and program director of the internal medicine residency program; and Pang-Yen Fan, MD, professor of medicine and vice chair of education in the Division of Renal Medicine.
McManus said the Department of Medicine wanted to create a more comprehensive program that offers training to physician-scientists. “I think it keeps a lot of our scientists here and they’re happy when they get to work with talented trainees,” he said.
Read Pukkila-Worley, MD, professor of medicine, associate director of the Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) training program and director of the Finberg Physician-Scientist Training Program, said, “Considering our incredible prowess in basic science, translational science, disease-oriented research on our campus, creating such a program is a huge win for UMass Chan, because we use these resources to train our future physician-scientists.”
Dr. Pukkila-Worley said the program is targeting all physician-scientists in the United States and the department hopes to leverage UMass Chan’s research reputation to recruit people who want to take advantage of the campus’ training environment to further their careers in medicine.
“The Finberg Physician-Scientist Training Program starts with internal medicine residency training, and then clinical training in a subspecialty, such as cardiology, infectious disease or hematology/oncology. From there, we have established a codified research experience where physician-scientist training program trainees will work under the mentorship of research faculty on our campus. The goal is for our trainees to establish their own academic footprints to launch their careers as independent physicians,” Pukkila-Worley said.
The program is in its first admissions cycle, with applications open until Sept. 24, and will accept two residents on Match Day, March 21, 2025.
“We want our first class to be exceptional, because they will be the flag bearers for our program,” Pukkila-Worley said. “The major initiative now is to try to recruit the best applicants we possibly can.”
The program offers significant incentives, including a guaranteed match into the fellowship program, a guaranteed salary for three years of research training, extensive mentoring and a path to tenure track faculty position at UMass Chan.
