A cross-sectional survey and analysis of Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award recipients.

BACKGROUND: The Dermatology Foundation (DF) has a comprehensive career development award (CDA) program. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of this program, a cross-sectional survey of recipients receiving support between 1990 and 2012 was performed. METHODS: Award recipients completed a questionnaire concerning their career status and record of research funding. To verify the self-reported funding data, information about each awardee was extracted from the National Institutes of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools database and used to define funding acquired by CDA recipients. RESULTS: In all, 84% of CDA recipients responded to the survey. A total of 213 awardees (79%) hold full- or part-time positions in academic medicine. Approximately 70% of the award recipients in academic medicine have received federal research funding. The National Institutes of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools database and other sources indicated that the funding acquired by CDA recipients through 2015 and 2017 amounted to approximately $365.4 million and $451.8 million, respectively. Each dollar of DF CDA funding through 2015 (ie, $36.2 million) was linked to more than $10 in grant support through 2015 and $12 through 2017. LIMITATIONS: This cross-sectional survey was retrospective and (in part) self-reported. CONCLUSIONS: The DF has succeeded in supporting the career development of basic, translational, and clinical investigators and fostered the promotion and retention of these individuals in academic medicine.

A retrospective analysis of the Dermatology Foundation's Career Development Award Program.

BACKGROUND: To provide research support that develops and retains leaders, educators, and investigators in dermatology and cutaneous biology, the Dermatology Foundation (DF) has designed and implemented a comprehensive Career Development Award (CDA) Program. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of the DF's 3-year CDA, a comprehensive survey of recipients who received this mechanism of support between 1990 and 2007 was performed. METHODS: Of 196 individuals receiving a DF CDA, 181 were identified and asked to complete a comprehensive questionnaire concerning their career status, employment history, professional rank, and record of independent research funding (private foundation, federal, other). A personal assessment of the impact of this funding on these individuals' career trajectory was also requested. RESULTS: Eighty percent of 181 CDA recipients identified currently hold full- or part-time positions in academic medicine. The faculty rank of 112 survey respondents included 46 assistant professors (41%), 41 associate professors (37%), 18 professors (16%), and 7 division or departmental chairs (6%). Of respondents, 84% reported that they have received subsequent independent research funding; 95 of these individuals (86%) have received funding from a federal agency (235 federal grants awarded to date with funding >$318M). LIMITATIONS: The study was retrospective and self-reported; some awardees did not respond to the survey. CONCLUSIONS: The DF's CDA Program has succeeded in supporting the early career development of talented investigators, educators, and leaders; fostered the promotion and retention of these individuals in academic medicine; and nucleated numerous investigative careers that have successfully acquired independent research funding.