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Highlights
Two programs train researchers to conduct clinical investigations
Two recently initiated programs in the School of Medicine are helping prepare the next generation of clinical researchers. The programs, the Mentored Training Program in Clinical Investigation (MTPCI) and the Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Training Program (PICRT), granted degrees and certificates for the first time in May, 2007.
Bradley Evanoff, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Division of General Medical Sciences directs the MTPCI program. "We were very excited to graduate our first group of scholars," Evanoff said. "This training will help them develop successful careers as clinical researchers."
In addition to calling for specialized medical knowledge, clinical research trials require physicians and scientists to understand study design, statistical analysis and data management as well as ethical and legal issues. Both MTPCI and PICRT provide students with this essential framework of knowledge. Educating faculty, trainees and students regarding clinical research and enhancing clinical translational research at the School of Medicine are core features of the BioMed 21 research initiative.
 (left to right) Bradley Evanoff, M.D., Susan Criswell, M.D., John Rinker, M.D., Alison Cahill, M.D., Oliver Ni, M.D., Monique Williams, M.D., Stephanie Lutter, M.D. "When you go through a professional school like this, you learn how to be a great healthcare professional, but you don't necessarily learn how to do clinical research," said Jay Piccirillo, M.D., director of the PICRT program. "It's important to have training programs like ours to give healthcare professional students the skills to think through a clinical problem logically and coherently, to gather data and to write grants." Piccirillo is also director of the Clinical Outcomes Research Office and professor of otolaryngology.
MTPCI offers master's degrees and certificates to junior faculty, fellows and postdoctoral students. PICRT trains students enrolled in doctoral degree programs in several allied healthcare fields. Three masters degrees and five certificates were awarded by the MTPCI program, and three certificates were awarded by the PICRT program this year.
Oliver Ni, M.D., instructor in neurology, earned a master of science in clinical investigation through the MTPCI program. "I found great value in the program," he said. "You have access to enthusiastic faculty devoted to clinical research, and you build good connections with peers who can offer different perspectives when a problem or research question arises. Overall, the program provided a very strong background for an academic career in clinical research."
 (left to right) Jay Piccirillo, M.D., Eugenia Garvin, Timothy Wolf, O.T.D., and Christelle Akati. Timothy Wolf, O.T.D., earned both a master of science in clinical investigation from the MTPCI program and a certificate from the PICRT program. In the fall, he will join the faculty of the Program in Occupational Therapy as an instructor. "I wouldn't have been able to pursue a career in clinical research without the programs," he said. "No other schools include all the other departments and programs in their clinical research training core. Physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, biostatisticians, audiologists and others trained side-by-side and learned from one another. Collaborative research like that is exactly what health care needs."
The two training programs are within the Division of Clinical Sciences, a part of the BioMed 21 initiative. The division was established as a cross-department and cross-campus division to improve the performance of patient-oriented research.
The programs are coordinated with the Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development Program headed by Victoria Fraser, M.D., professor of medicine and co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases. This program is aimed at fellows, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty committed to multidisciplinary clinical research and allows them to further their career goals and to contribute to clinical and translational science.
"We're hopeful that we will soon have the opportunity to wrap all of our clinical training programs into an NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award," Piccirillo said. "The NIH is mandating this umbrella structure that will encompass these programs to create a unified institute of clinical science."
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By Gwen Ericson
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BioMed 21
