The term the “Endangered Physician-Scientist” has been used for the past 45 years to describe the dying MD/PhD career path. Despite their necessary role in medicine, helping to make scientific discoveries, and integrating those discoveries into the provision of health care, some believe that the future of physician-scientists rests on shaky ground. Today, their future is more unstable than ever. On January 22, 2025, the NIH implemented a funding freeze, terminating an estimated $1.5 billion in grant applications, delaying over 16,000 grant proposals, firing at least 1,300 employees, and significantly disrupting hundreds of ongoing projects with little to no notice.
Panic has rapidly spread throughout the medical community regarding the funding freeze. Even research that has not been cut remains in uncertain waters. While some NIH operations quickly resumed after the funding freeze, others remain terminated or unduly delayed. These changes leave the future of the profession uncertain. However, in a profession where innovation is driven by investment, it can only be assumed that innovation will decrease alongside the funding cuts. Young physician-scientists are often told that grant writing is their currency as a scientist, meaning that without funding, they cannot pursue their research. While federal funding must be continually evaluated and restructured, it must still be accessible to researchers. Debates occur every year between legislators and the scientific community regarding funding. These debates have the potential to lead to agreements that will benefit science, our country, and our future. Without these conversations, we are not improving health care; instead, we are putting it at risk.
As someone who has had an NIH grant, I understand the importance of these grants in creating our new generation of physician-scientists. They are not just an investment in a trainee’s future and a way to provide the financial resources needed to conduct research, they are also the stepping stone for future scientists, who may someday change the world. However, the changes to the NIH, involving how, where, and when research can be performed, are alarming. It may also deter individuals from even trying to become a physician-scientist because of the sheer unpredictability of what the future of funding will look like. The fact is: If you do not have grant funding as a researcher, then you do not have a job. The problem goes beyond one individual person and their ability to perform their job; it also impacts the profession at large. If you do not have the funding to take on postdocs, graduate students, and other forms of trainees, then training is stalled. As a physician-scientist, I recognize that many of us have the ability to remain in medicine, even if research opportunities do not exist. However, the more physician-scientists we lose entirely to medicine, the more we lose potential physician-scientists, who will avoid going into a field that they see as unstable. The lack of grant opportunities will negatively impact the future for all those currently in the profession and all those who dreamed of entering.
A survey in Nature, conducted in April 2025, found that 75% of U.S. scientists were considering leaving to work elsewhere. If older established scientists are leaving the profession, how can we expect early career trainees to want to stay? The need for more physician-scientists was already dire before the funding cuts. With the current funding cuts and the high rates of physician scientists planning on leaving the career, the extinction of the physician-scientist doesn’t just become a possibility, it becomes inevitable. Early-career trainees need to be able to obtain their own grants to fund their research ideas, so they can develop into physician-scientists. Those we are training today will be the ones performing research for the next 50 years. Without the opportunities the NIH offers to be able to train, the U.S. will lose valuable future scientists and future scientific achievements.
How do we ensure the next generation of physician-scientists isn’t lost? Share in the comments.
Whitney Sambhariya, MD, PhD, is an ophthalmology resident physician-scientist in Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated from UT Southwestern Medical Center with her PhD in cell and molecular biology. She has been an active advocate in medicine for NIH and NEI funding, having presented her research and spoken with legislators on Capitol Hill. She has also written multiple legislative policies for medical societies and served on multiple boards of trustees, working to ensure the voice of trainees is always a part of the conversation.
Collage by Jennifer Bogartz
