The Rehabilitation Medicine Scientist Training Program: Updates and Perspectives on Addressing an Ongoing Need in Physiatric Research.

The shortage of physician-scientists in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation remains a critical problem. The Rehabilitation Medicine Scientist Training Program (RMSTP) was developed in 1995 to provide structured career development training for aspiring rehabilitation medicine researchers. Initially funded by a 5-year K12 grant from the NIH National Center of Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR), the structure was revised in 2001, continued in a stable format through 3 additional funding cycles (2001-2006, 2006-2012, and 2012-2016), and was again revised to a research education program (NIH R25) model in 2019. With this change in format of the RMSTP we now report the productivity of funded trainees and discuss future directions informed by the RMSTP's current R25 structure.