Scholarship During Fellowship: Flexibility Unrealized

Abstract

* Abbreviations: ABP — : American Board of Pediatrics SOC — : Scholarship Oversight Committee What is the goal of pediatric subspecialty training, how long should the training period be, and what is the value of a scholarly activity? A committee of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) grappled with these and other questions from 2000 to 2003. Previously the ABP supported the view of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations that “the principal goal of fellowship training should be to develop future academic pediatricians”1 and required all applicants for subspecialty certification to have evidence of “meaningful accomplishment in research,” usually a peer-reviewed publication. A number of concerns spawned the 2000 to 2003 ABP review, including subspecialty workforce shortages, decreasing numbers of pediatric physician–scientists, and trends toward nonacademic careers among subspecialty fellowship graduates, concerns that persist today. Based on the committee’s recommendations, in 2004 the ABP issued new fellowship training requirements providing greater curricular flexibility to better prepare subspecialists with varied career aspirations.2 In place of “meaningful accomplishment in research,” the ABP embraced a variety of scholarly activities that could be tailored to individual career goals. Furthermore, fellows were to be mentored by a Scholarship Oversight Committee (SOC) that approved their scholarship work product. Examples of scholarship offered by the ABP included basic, clinical, translational, and health … Address correspondence to F. Bruder Stapleton, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, RB2:401, Seattle, WA 98105. E-mail: bruder.stapleton{at}seattlechildrens.org