The Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) created the Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowship (MSARF) Summer Program in 2005. By providing fellowships to medical students with an interest in anesthesiology and research, FAER aims to expand the scientific talent in the specialty. This is an important aim for anesthesiology for three reasons: 1) The number of physician-scientists has been steadily declining1,2 ; 2) Anesthesiology has been historically underrepresented in NIH funding3 ; and 3) Less than 20 percent of medical students are interested in research as a career.1,5 These factors, when combined, make it especially competitive for anesthesiologists to receive the level of funding required to have careers as independent investigators, and even more challenging to create new knowledge that advances medicine.
FAER’s MSARF Program is designed as a pathway to a career in academic anesthesiology and to future funding from FAER...