Abstract
For psychiatrists interested in research, balancing time between research and clinical practice is challenging. Furthermore, this situation is made more difficult by the need to accommodate the demands of private life with maintaining professional competency. The MD Scientist Training Program (MDSTP) at The University of Tokyo gave the author a chance to consider career path. Currently, more than half of the graduates of MDSTP belong to a basic graduate school department.
Understanding illness trajectory in clinical practice produces fruitful research ideas which in turn may contribute to improving clinical medicine. Experiencing different philosophies and ways of doing things can also broaden our perspective.
The author entered graduate school after obtaining a board certificate and designated physician of mental health, namely expertise as an external standard. Since optimizing time allocation prospectively is challenging, psychiatrists should go through their residency guided by their own values or standards (through generating their own internal standard) . Most of the psychiatrists with whom the author is acquainted are happily walking the path of “their choice”. The author is grateful to be part of this diverse culture.
