Efforts to Secure Future Funding for training similar to the Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Washington

A group of faculty from all the health sciences schools has succeeded in obtaining a new grant for “Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Training” from the NIH. This is part of the NIH-wide Roadmap Initiative, and is intended to provide training for doctoral-level fellows, post-docs, and junior faculty from all disciplines in the health sciences. Dr. Deyo is the Principal Investigator of this new program, which will start its first cohort of 8 Scholars on July 1, 2005. This first cohort has Scholars from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Social Work and Pharmacy. The following abstract describes the program:

The explosion of biological knowledge and technology contrasts with inefficient and sometimes ineffective health care delivery. Translating scientific advances into better health requires more and better research at several steps leading from bench to practitioner’s office and to health systems and communities. Our aims are to train investigators who have depth in a specific area of research, but also breadth of knowledge about the full spectrum of clinical investigation; provide them with methodological knowledge and practical skills for conducting high quality integrative clinical research; and create an environment that infuses them with the excitement of clinical research, and nurtures their early career development.

The program accepts approximately 7 Scholars per year; Scholars may remain in the program for 2-5 years. The program involves the UW Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Community Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Dentistry, and Social Work, as well as prominent affiliated programs such as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Group Health Center for Health Studies. Doctoral level Scholars are recruited from all health professions. A multidisciplinary core curriculum exposes all Scholars to the theories and methods of disciplines relevant to clinical research, and elective courses allow depth of study in a focused area. Intensively mentored research experience is the centerpiece of the program, and the UW offers an extraordinary range of research cores, centers, and mentors to support this work. Scholars will pursue research in one of three program divisions: Translational Research, Clinical Trials, or Outcomes/Clinical Epidemiology/ Health Services Research. Most will complete an MS degree from the School of Public Health or Pharmacy, in a Clinical Research Track. We will continuously evaluate program results, and if we are successful, our graduates will become research leaders prepared to conduct multidisciplinary clinical research using the highest ethical standards and capitalizing on new technologic and informatics tools.

This program includes Scholars with a more biomedical research orientation than most RWJ Scholars, and covers the full range of human subjects research. But it explicitly includes those with an interest in health services research and epidemiology, and several among our first cohort have such interests. Though less oriented toward health policy than the CSP, this program will continue some of the training experience offered by the CSP, and will benefit from the experience we’ve gained with the CSP.