What career paths do biomedical PhD, MD/PhD, and postdoctoral trainees pursue? While we know, in general, that these trainees pursue careers in academic research, teaching, administration, science writing, science policy, law, and consulting, information on career outcomes is limited. There is no comprehensive national system for tracking career outcome – although this information would be essential for institutional policy and decision making, and would provide key measures of success to help inform trainees of career options.
When the AAMC and its Group on Graduate Research, Education, and Training (GREAT) embarked on a study to find out how institutions collect research trainee data, it found that 12 AAMC-member institutions maintain data in 22 different databases. This report presents the AAMC’s findings from surveys and interviews to help institutions develop and enhance their own data-collection systems and to encourage local and national discussions around research trainee data collection. You will find profiles of seven of the 12 AAMC-member institutions that were selected to participate in this study and a summary of key findings.