1) Oh my God, I agree with Ralph.
2) As someone who has a PhD, Brian NAILS IT for me here. I fit into most of those boxes (burned out, slow project, want to focus on clinical learning). That being said...I can still play the game, and have managed to author or co-author over a dozen manuscripts in residency. Are any of them good? Eh...
Actually,
I only agree with 50% of what RW said: junky research ---> no. Great research ---> YES!
RW has this superiority syndrome, everyone below him and not doing lab research is considered inferior.
BK is right though, the emphasis needs to be clinical. Those who wish to pursue academic/advancement etc., then pursue research and publish.
Anyway, surgonc has similar issues, even with surplus of surgonc's, many of them have PhD and pursues lab research.
What I have learned over the years, the guys that publish a lot of pancreatic gene research is very lousy in the OR doing a Whipple procedure...
It is close to impossible being good in both lab and clinical, no matter what specialty you are in.
Excellent clinical skills are already very difficult to achieve!