In addition to the standard curriculum, the Psychiatry Residency offers the Physician-Scientist Track for residents who want to deepen their experience in research areas.
Overview
From its inception in 2020, the Dell Med Psychiatry Physician-Scientist Training Program has embraced a truly distinct resident-centered approach to research education during residency structured to address the individualized training needs of each resident while also delivering a sound core curriculum universally needed by all trainees.
The program is designed with the flexibility to offer a fruitful learning environment that accommodates the training needs for residents who enter residency with extensive research training and experience and for residents who have little or no prior research experience and for the first time are looking to discover whether they have an appetite and aptitude for a research-oriented career.
Residents may participate in research electives during their PGY 1-2 years before they are required to commit to completing the program. As a result, the first two years provide an occasion to “test the waters” and gauge interest in pursuing a particular line of research. The program does not depend upon a separate source of stipend support when residents are engaged in research activities, nor are the residency’s clinical services constructed so that they are dependent upon resident labor to operate. As a result, whereas most residency programs are only able to accommodate one or two research track residents in each class, there is no cap on the number of residents who can elect to participate in the physician-scientist track.
Launched in 2020, the Dell Med Psychiatry Physician-Scientist Training Program initially limited recruitment to those already in the residency program. That year, the program launched with three PGY-2 residents, one of whom, Bradford Unroe, M.D., went on to become the first graduate of the program.
Unroe’s research project, Evaluation of a Novel Integrated Care Model for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness, led him to pursue a career in governmental public health leadership. Following residency, Unroe continued his career development in public health research and administration as a resident in the Texas Department of State Health Services Preventive Medicine Program, which will position him to serve as a public health authority at the state or federal level by 2026.
In the 2024-25 academic year, eight of the 11 PGY-2 residents will take part in the PGY-2 preliminary research elective. To date, 69% of residents who participated in a PGY-1 or PGY-2 research elective have chosen to continue into the program’s PGY-3 and PGY-4 phase.
During the 2020-21 residency recruitment season, the program began actively recruiting residency applicants to consider the physician-scientist track, contributing to its dramatic growth. From three residents in 2020-21, participation grew to four residents in 2021-22, five in 2022-23, 11 in 2023-24 and 15 in the 2024-25 academic year. Importantly, the program will graduate its next two residents:
- Bryan Barksdale, M.D., Ph.D., Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Modulation of the Amygdala in Healthy Controls and Affective Disorders
- Chris Demetriades, M.D., Using Machine Learning to Identify Factors Associated with Distress, Functional Impairment, and Suicidality in Transitional Age Youth (TAY): A Cross-Sectional, Mixed Methods Study.
The research projects of the five rising PGY-3 residents include:
- Youth Suicide Prevention: Optimizing Care Coordination Strategies for Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT), Tuyet Elan, M.D.
- Beyond the Surface: Probing the Depths of Feigned PTSD in the Digital Age, Robert Esterquest, M.D.
- Utility of Peer Support Services in Mental Health Care for Transitional-Aged Youth, Elizabeth Martin, M.D.
- Accelerated Intermittent Theta Burst in Treatment-Naive Adolescents, Sean O’Sullivan, M.D.
- Health System Interactions Experienced by Human Trafficking Victims, Keerthi Vemulpalli, M.D.
To date, the 15 2024-25 physician-scientist track residents have:
- Published eight articles and chapters
- Presented 13 posters
- Presented six invited oral presentations at scientific conferences
- Received numerous awards including six invitations to participate in the APA Research Colloquium for Junior Psychiatrist Investigators, ADAA Alies Muskin Career Development Leadership Program, Society of Biological Psychiatry Chair’s Choice Award, American Psychological Association Scholars Program Ambassador, APA Foundation Leadership Program Ambassador and Outstanding Poster for Early Career Psychiatrist at APA Research Colloquium.
Track Curriculum
The curriculum, including both its laboratory and classroom components, unfolds in a systematic stepwise manner, not only devoting more time to physician-scientist track activity with each successive year but also providing greater challenges that foster growing levels of independence as the training program unfolds.
PGY-1 residents may participate in up to three brief exploratory electives each scheduled for one half-day per week for four weeks. Residents spend each 4-week elective with a distinct primary mentor candidate to observe the research of up to three faculty members and narrow their selection of a mentor. During these brief electives, residents observe but do not directly participate in the team’s research. The objective of the exploratory elective is to afford residents an opportunity to gauge shared interests and their capacity to work well together with up to three potential mentors.
Deliverables
Residents planning to continue the track are encouraged but not required to select their primary research mentor by the conclusion of PGY-1.
PGY-2 residents may participate in a 12-month elective, two half-days per week, collaborating with their chosen mentor. The objectives of the preliminary elective are for residents to gain experience in the mentor’s lab, and develop their resident research project proposal with their mentor’s guidance and assistance.
Didactics
Residents participating in the track are required to complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative Course, or CITI, in the Protection of Human Research Subjects if participating in clinical research, or American Association for Laboratory Animal Science Training, or AALAS, if participating in animal research, or both.
Feedback & Evaluation
Residents and their mentors will meet quarterly with members of the track’s executive council. These discussions review progress towards the track’s expected PGY-2 deliverables, identify logistical obstacles and assist with solutions, offer scientific guidance regarding the development of their research project proposal, and on-going review and guidance regarding evolving career plans. The program director will address any deficiencies in your clinical training during these meetings. If residents decide to opt out of the track at the conclusion of PGY-2, they will not be required to continue these meetings during the following years.
Deliverables
- CITI and/or AALAS certificates of completion
- Resident research project proposal
- If residents are in good standing in clinical training at the conclusion of PGY-2, they are eligible to submit, together with their chosen mentor, their resident research project proposal. This proposal serves as an application to continue into the PGY-3 and PGY-4 research project phase of the track. The training and scientific merit of the proposal is subject to approval by the track executive council.
- Because the track executive council meets with residents and their mentors quarterly to provide feedback and guidance on the development of their project proposal, it is extremely unlikely that submitted proposals will be deemed unacceptable.
PGY-3 residents devote 40% of their time, or 16 hours per week, to their research project and other track activities. Research time is structured and monitored. Mentors assist their residents in refining their research question leading to an Institutional Review Board and/or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee submission to seek approval of the protocol and consent form for their research project. Some PGY-3 research time will be used for research didactics and collecting data as part of ongoing studies, curating and analyzing collected data, and preparing manuscripts for submission.
Didactics
Track participants are required to participate in the following didactic offerings.
- Ideas 2 Results, or I2R, curriculum
- Two hours per week for 12 months
- Residents attend the I2R courses provided by Dell Med which offer training in research design, ethics and data analysis using STATA.
- If a resident’s previous research training has sufficiently covered this material, they may exempt the I2R course with approval by track leadership.
- Responsible Conduct of Research, or RCR, Workshop
- Residents complete the 8-hour RCR workshop, course RR0100, offered each spring by UT Austin.
Feedback & Evaluation
- Quarterly meetings with track leadership.
- Residents and their mentors continue to meet quarterly with members of the track executive council. These discussions will review progress towards the track’s expected PGY-3 deliverables, identify logistical obstacles and assist with solutions, and ongoing guidance regarding evolving career plans. The program director will address any deficiencies in clinical training during these meetings.
- Monthly meetings with the track’s associate director.
- Due to the heightened demands of the track’s curriculum during the research project years, as well as the greater urgency for timely resolution of problems, quarterly meetings with the track’s executive council are supplemented by monthly meetings with the track’s associate director. The associate director will notify the program director of concerns that arise during these meetings that merit immediate attention.
Deliverables
- One IRB or IACUC approved protocol for the resident’s research project
- Successful completion of all four courses comprising the I2R curriculum
- Documentation of completion of the RCR Workshop
- One manuscript, review or original research, submitted for publication
- One abstract accepted to present data, poster or oral presentation, at a national scientific meeting. Reimbursement for travel costs to meeting provided by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
PGY-4 residents devote 60% of their time each week, or 24 hours, to research training. Research time is structured and monitored as in the PGY-3 year, but residents will become increasingly independent as they complete the objectives of their research project.
Didactics
- Responsible Conduct of Research Talks
- Residents are required to attend at least four of the 1-hour RCR Talks convened by UT Austin during the year.
- IRB/IACUC committee meeting
- Residents are required to attend one meeting of either the IRB or IACUC depending upon whether the resident is primarily engaged in human subjects or animal research.
Feedback & Evaluation
- Quarterly meetings with track leadership
- Residents and their mentors continue to meet quarterly with members of the track’s executive council. These discussions review progress towards the track’s expected PGY-4 deliverables, identify logistical obstacles and assist with solutions, and on-going guidance regarding your evolving career plans. The program director will address any clinical training deficiencies during these meetings.
- Monthly Meetings with the track’s associate director
- Quarterly meetings with the executive council continue to be supplemented by monthly meetings with the track’s associate director. The associate director will notify the program director of concerns that arise during these meetings that merit immediate attention.
Deliverables
- Documentation of attendance of at least four RCR Talks
- Documentation of attendance at one IRB or one IACUC meeting
- One data-based manuscript submitted for publication with the resident as first-author
- One abstract accepted to present data, poster or lecture, at a national scientific meeting. Reimbursement for travel costs to meeting provided by the Department of Psychiatry.
- Submit a specific aims page for at least one research grant application along with detailed plans for obtaining appropriate pilot data
- For track residents aspiring to go directly to a faculty appointment, they are expected to have specific aims, an outlined proposal and a plan for pilot data related to an NIH K-series career development award submission.
If residents choose to complete a clinical fellowship — addiction, forensic, geriatric, child and adolescent psychiatry — within the department, they may spread the final year of their resident research project across their PGY-4 and PGY-5 years. Residents may select this option at the conclusion of PGY-3 if they have:
- A formal agreement before the end of the PGY-3 year to complete a Dell Med clinical fellowship
- Approval by the fellowship program director to complete physician-scientist track requirements during the clinical fellowship
- Agreement by the track executive council, the resident’s research mentor and clinical fellowship program director that the resident research project is germane to the clinical fellowship.
If the resident remains in the track during their clinical fellowship, they and their mentor will continue to meet quarterly with the track’s executive council to monitor progress. The balance of research training, including didactics, between the PGY-4 and PGY-5 years will be determined in consultation with the executive council and the clinical fellowship program director on a case-by-case basis.