Our History

Established forty years ago, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program was designed to produce an elite cadre of health care leaders. Carefully chosen post-resident physicians with a bent for health services research were provided two years of protected research time along with intensive professionalism and leadership training at sites all over the country. In 2017, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ended their clinical scholars program in order to move in a different direction. Under the leadership of several RWJ alumni, the National Clinician Scholars Program emerged to take its place. The NCSP continues the vision of the original RWJ program, and has grown to include nurses and a more community-based curriculum as well as partnerships with local institutions and the VA.