Physician–scientists are needed now more than ever

Abstract

Your News Feature “Them and us no longer” (Nature 439, 779–780; 2006), about the narrowing divide between medical doctors and PhD scientists, ends with a disturbing assumption: that “the era of the physician–scientist [is drawing] to a close”. As medical doctors who have spent our careers in science, we strongly favour programmes that expose PhD researchers to the realities of clinical medicine.