[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.
[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).
[9][10] Although this dual-degree pathway is not necessary to establish a physician-scientist career, most do receive some form of explicit research training in addition to their clinical education.
[11] Physician-scientists are a particularly productive research cohort contributing to biomedical innovation, discovering life saving therapies, and developing disease prevention strategies.
[5] At many medical schools, physician-scientist faculty are expected to obtain significant fractions of their nominal salary in the form of competitive research grants, which are also requirements for the award of tenure.
[6] Uncertainty about stable careers in academic medicine and the long initial training phase are often cited as concerns by aspiring entrants to the field.