My Research Mentors

The specialty of family medicine has made great strides over the past 5 decades and now includes a significant number of outstanding practicing physicians and residency programs.As such, a cadre of wonderful clinical and educational mentors now exists for family medicine trainees.However, research success, while critical, has been more limited.This is due to many previously noted factors, including limited financial support and research time.But research is also hampered by the smaller group of family medicine researchers available as mentors.While the few family physicians planning a research career usually have research mentors, those planning primarily clinical and educational careers rarely do.Yet, for those planning medical school and residency faculty careers, having one or more research mentors can be critical to whether they will successfully participate in research.For them, clinician-educator family medicine faculty can play a transformative research mentorship role, as can faculty in other departments.