Many in the biomedical research community have voiced concern over a future shortage of physician-scientists in the United States. Tighter budgets at the National Institutes of Health and the escalating cost of medical education seem to be discouraging would-be investigators from committing to research careers.

Data describing the research activity of medical students provide additional insight. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, nearly 80% of American medical students who were accepted to residency programmes in 2007 reported having actively participated in a research project. But as most of these will abandon research soon after, this statistic suggests that potential is being wasted — there is a need to fund more aspiring physician-scientists. In my view as a medical student, it also emphasizes the need for renewed commitment from investigators to mentor students and foster genuine enthusiasm for research early on.

Students and trainees know the biggest reason so many are engaged in research: it is perceived not as an end in itself, but as a means of gaining admission to medical schools, residencies and fellowships. When I told my college advisers that I was going to apply to medical school, they said I needed “some kind of research experience” in medicine. Yet at the time, I had little interest in biomedical research — I was a history major — and doing so would have felt forced.

Good mentors can work against this perception. After a year working in a genetics lab during medical school, I developed such enthusiasm for basic-science investigation that I spent a year on a Sarnoff Fellowship in cardiovascular research. Both experiences were remarkable for how my mentors identified and nurtured my budding interests. They helped me understand not only the challenges of a research career but also its rewards. They shared with me their belief that the most exciting scientific discoveries in medicine are yet to come. Thanks in large part to mentors who invited me to try my hand at research, my new dreams of becoming a physician-scientist are coming to fruition.

I am fortunate in having had such proactive mentors. But if an imperative of the biomedical research community is to replenish its stocks with outstanding physician-scientists — and outstanding future mentors — I should not have to count myself as only one of an exceptionally lucky few.