The CSCDP has a proven track record of success. Since 2003, 1,051 young clinician scientists have applied to the CSCDP (Table). The program has over 350 alumni, many of whom are still in research careers. The program started as a 1:1 participant to faculty mentor ratio but grew over time to accommodate higher demand. Nonetheless, the ratio remains small, ensuring that participants have individual interactions with many of the faculty during the program and the ability to network with them thereafter.
| YEAR | APPLICANTS | PARTICIPANTS |
| 2003 | 25 | 11 |
| 2004 | 37 | 10 |
| 2005 | 40 | 13 |
| 2006 | 34 | 13 |
| 2007 | 20 | 18 |
| 2008 | 24 | 18 |
| 2009 | 73 | 16 |
| 2010 | 112 | 24 |
| 2011 | 101 | 28 |
| 2012 | 93 | 29 |
| 2013 | 81 | 26 |
| 2014 | 96 | 31 |
| 2015 | 85 | 27 |
| 2016 | 95 | 27 |
| 2017 | 80 | 33 |
| 2018 | 55 | 28 |
| 2019 | 76 | 43 |
| TOTAL | 1,127 | 395 |
A retrospective study of CSCDP alumni from the 2003-2014 program years recently published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery concluded that participation in the Clinician Scholar Career Development Program correlates to scholarly success.1 The study objectives were to analyze characteristics of the accepted CSCDP applicants and determine the percentage of program alumni who received subsequent research funding. Of the 229 CSCDP participants analyzed, 67 (29%) were awarded NIH funding, OREF grants, AOA Traveling Fellowships, and/or specialty-specific traveling fellowships after participating in the CSCDP1. Those participants involved in any of the career-impactful opportunities post-CSCDP have had higher scholarly activity and impact compared with those who were not involved in the career-impactful opportunities (h-index: 15.9 [std dev, 8.1] vs 10.0 [std dev, 5.7], p < 0.0001). No scholarly activity and impact differences existed among orthopaedic subspecialties (p = 0.077), demonstrating that all participants, regardless of subspecialty, benefitted from the program. These data show that the CSCDP has played an important role in promoting clinician-researcher careers in orthopaedic surgery, but also underscores the need to adapt the program to the continually changing health-care landscape to reach and even higher success rate in preparing clinician-scientists to advance musculoskeletal research and innovation.
