ABIM Research Pathway

Residents with a PhD or equivalent advanced scientific training may qualify for the Pathway.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Research Pathway allows residents to substitute a year of clinical training in a subspecialty for the PGY3 year of the residency - in essence, to "short track" into fellowship training. Residents with a PhD or equivalent advanced scientific training may qualify for the Pathway. Credentials equivalent to an MD/PhD would ordinarily include one or more first-author publications and strong support from previous research mentors.

Residents in the Pathway will be mentored by a physician-scientist with corresponding interests to their own from the first month of residency to develop their research and career plans. To qualify for the ABIM Research Pathway, the ABIM requires that residents "be rated as satisfactory in all components of clinical competence (clinical judgment, medical knowledge, clinical skills, humanistic qualities, professionalism and provision of medical care) and moral and ethical behavior in the clinical setting for both the PGY-1 and PGY-2 years of training." Residents will meet with program staff to review their clinical progress in November of their internship year, and if on track to achieve clinical competency, will be encouraged to submit an application for subspecialty fellowship training with vigorous support from the Residency Program.

Although we will strongly support BIDMC fellowship training to all young scientists who qualify for the Research Pathway, we will also support applications for fellowship training elsewhere in Boston or nationwide.