Commentary: physician-scientist attrition: stemming the tide through national networks for training and development.

Future advances in medicine depend on a reliable pipeline of physician-scientists. However, the changing demographics of physician-scientists, including the advanced age of new MD investigators, and attrition along the physician-scientist developmental pathway are cause for concern. Recently developed National Institutes of Health-funded national networks for physician-scientist training and development-such as the Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health and the Pediatric Scientist Development Program-offer valuable approaches to supporting and retaining these trainees.