Physician-scientist hiring practices at US universities before and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Poor retention of physician-scientists in the work force is a major impediment to progress in biomedical research, and the leaky pipeline of junior physician-scientists was exacerbated after the COVID-19 pandemic. We report the results of a multi-institutional survey aimed at assessing hiring practice patterns among academic deans and department chairs, with 34 responses before and 70 responses after the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that private institutions tend to provide greater startup support across all areas of research, including basic science, translational, and clinical arenas, with NIH funding and publication volume predicting the level of support. We found that half of respondents provide research RVUs. The COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted the availability of supplemental internal funding and bridge funding, which catalyzed institutions to support junior faculty through endowments. Yet, we found that junior faculty had to rearrange clinical schedules to increase clinical productivity. We also found that childcare policies were more robust at private institutions. These data highlight hiring practices across a cohort of academic deans and department chairs to improve transparency of the hiring process for junior faculty candidates approaching their first independent position. Providing greater transparency in hiring practices can help physician-scientist trainees find a good fit for their faculty position and can help stave off attrition from this pipeline.