Read One, Write One, Get Funded: Two Junior Pediatric Hospitalists Delve Into Clinical Research and Grant Writing

Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) is a broad field that has recently been recognized as a specialty requiring its own fellowship aimed at developing the more academic aspects of this career.¹ Academic medicine encompasses the triad of medical education, clinical responsibilities, and scientific research. This triad is touted by training programs who have resources in place to ensure adequate exposure to all three facets of academic medicine. Many academic institutions note that continuing to emphasize all three aspects, particularly research, has been difficult at the junior faculty level.² Common barriers to research productivity for faculty in primarily clinical positions include insufficient time, experience, funding, and infrastructure to support the physician–scientist.^2–9 As two junior faculty members in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at a 315-bed, freestanding tertiary care children’s hospital, we have certainly encountered a number of these hurdles during our foray into clinical research.

Other academic institutions have suggested solutions to promote scientific research among junior faculty who juggle the competing demands of career planning, clinical responsibilities, increasing administrative pressures, and personal life. These include formalized mentor–mentee programs at the faculty level, gaining support from division chiefs, encouraging interdivisional collaboration, and providing increased infrastructure for research support.^2–9 Forster et al⁹ recently emphasized the necessity of these resources in helping promote research productivity in pediatric hospitalists pursuing a research career. We noted that, for primarily clinical faculty within a division with limited research infrastructure, the creation of informal mentor–mentee relationships and interdivisional collaboration were the most attainable methods to increase access to research resources. These relationships allowed us to seek out the resources we needed to achieve our academic goals and placed …