National NIH K12 Physician Scientist
DiabDocs Program
The National NIH Physician Scientist DiabDocs-K12 Program is now open to scholars who can conduct research at any eligible US institution!
The prime objective of our multi-center National NIH K12 “Diabetes-Docs: Physician-Scientist DiabDocs-K12 Program” (DiabDocs) is to support the academic research career development of the next generation of physician-scientists with a specific focus in basic and clinical diabetes.
Our structured K12 program is designed to provide a mentored research experience together with tailored career development training. Given the historically low rates of persons under-represented in medicine entering diabetes research careers, we will prioritize intentional evidence-based effort toward supporting and funding for these individuals.
The goals of the program are:
- Create a national cohort of up-and-coming physician-scientist researchers, developing cohesion through shared programmatic training cohort experiences including an annual retreat.
- Expand the geographical and pipeline reach of current diabetes K12 programs so that diverse K12 Scholar candidates can be trained locally while maintaining the historic strengths of the past diabetes K12 programs.
- Develop an outstanding national mentor community to train diabetes physician-scientists and provide a more visible pathway to research careers for medical students/residents/fellows by active recruitment programs and inclusion in the DiabDocs retreat and educational programs.
- Ensure consistency and effectiveness of mentoring, including directed attention to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) across research centers through shared mentor training and resources.
In addition to our MPI structure, one of the distinguishing features of our program is the inclusion of all recently funded K12 Scholar program PIs and their experience as part of the DiabDocs Executive Leadership Committee (ELC) complemented by addition of two Adult Endocrinology physician-scientists with expertise in basic science, health services research, & DEI programs. In addition to these ELC investigators, we have engaged diverse physician-scientists from 15 additional institutions without K12 programs in diabetes, but with a strong interest in engaging with DiabDocs. These institutions bring a wealth of expertise including T32, K12, P30, and CTSA funding. DiabDocs will leverage these resources as well as their wide curricula of study and research experiences to provide our K12 scholars high quality training from a diverse faculty.
Program Leadership
David Maahs, MD, PhD
Multi-Center Program Director
Professor and Chief, Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, (by courtesy) of Epidemiology and Population Health at The Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital and at The Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, California
Linda DiMeglio, MD, MPH
Multi-Center Program Director
Professor and Chief, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology in the Department of Pediatrics at Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, Indiana