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<p class="MsoNormal">Good morning all,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a request to complete a national survey to look into the trend of applicants coming into MD/PhD programs having a gap year rather than straight from undergrad. It is anonymous, however, they have created a unique link for each university
so that they can provide data to each contributing university.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please complete the survey linked below if time permits in your schedule.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Introduction to the survey:</span></b><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Recent preliminary data collected by MSTP Directors Skip Brass from UPenn and Myles Akabas at Albert Einstein Medical College suggests that there has been an steady increase in the number of students entering
MD/PhD programs who are taking research-focused<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>gap<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>years between graduating from undergraduate and matriculating in their MD/PhD program. If true, this means that the total
time from college graduation to completing MD/PhD training is growing even longer from the combined effects of a growing<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>gap<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and increasing time to degree. </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Please complete<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http*3A*2F*2Fyalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com*2Fjfe*2Fform*2FSV_bC8jiRVAvQpzh41*3FSource*3DUpstate*3Fformat*3Durlencode&data=04*7C01*7Cthomptan*40upstate.edu*7C01f9413e61104c33f44c08d8c6be7c78*7C5cf50a665e2641dd89f883cf73ffee98*7C0*7C0*7C637477868758225269*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0*3D*7C1000&sdata=7yIBHD8NZHa4DBYaB6eFty1pNF3XG5FGDhZGdCG57*2FU*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!GobTDDpD7A!aR-RRsOSY8vcGX70_5oDDiqBVULCfdxXHOWuz5xb_o-Kwv8bIwMBq4tC38qsiq6an6KF$">this
brief survey</a> by no later than<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">March 5, 2021</span></strong></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red"> </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">to
help us to 1) determine whether<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>gaps before medical school matriculation are growing longer and more prevalent, and 2) better understand why this change has occurred. The goal is to survey MD-PhD trainees nationwide
in order to provide rigorous data to inform future policy discussions about the best approaches to physician-scientist training. </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">We are using a Qualtrics platform at Yale (survey administrator is Reiko Fitzsimonds at Yale) to administer this survey using an anonymous link which does not collect any identifying information from the you,
the respondent. IP addresses and location data will be removed so that responses to this survey cannot be traced back to individual respondents. We will be providing de-identified data back to each participating MD/PhD program, as well as aggregating the
responses across all the programs.</span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Thank you for your participation!</span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </span><span style="font-family:"-webkit-standard",serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Skip, Myles and Reiko</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.upstate.edu/prospective/"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="384" height="201" style="width:4.0in;height:2.0937in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D6F93F.20821460" alt="signature_1557727386"></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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