I Have a Medical Degree. Should I Consider a Career in Clinical Pharmacology in 2026?

Physicians have become increasingly rare in academic clinical pharmacology.This Perspective examines the structural, educational, and financial reasons behind this decline, contrasting the United States with publicly funded health systems.It argues that clinical pharmacology practiced by physicians remains alive but dispersed and discusses what physicians bring to the discipline and what it would take to make this career visible and attractive again.During my medical studies, I do not recall a single classmate saying that their dream was to become a clinical pharmacologist.Like many others, I was drawn instead to neurosurgery, a more fashionable specialty.I ended up in a discipline that draws far less attention at family dinners but makes me feel useful to my patients and my hospital.What is often seen as an anomaly in a medical career actually has a lot to offer.So, what does an MD bring to clinical pharmacology, and why has that combination become something of an endangered species in the field?After training in internal medicine and in clinical pharmacology and toxicology in Switzerland, I am now completing a research fellowship in the United States.What strikes me here, as it already did in Europe, though to a lesser extent, is how