The Bronx CREED Research1 Training Core will continue to encourage students and faculty to acquire adequate training to employ rigorous clinical, behavioral, and health services research methods for studying health disparities and to pursue important research questions posed in innovative and creative ways. Both the literature and our previous experience underscore the necessity of adequate time and structure to prepare the aspiring researcher, regardless'of discipline, research question, or level of training. . Documentation for the need for well-trained researchers in health disparities has been growing.1 In fact, the legislation that created NCMHD included the congressional finding that """"""""a national need exists for minority scientists in biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and health services research.... Demographic trends inspire concern about the Nation's ability to meet its future scientific, technological, and engineering workforce needs.""""""""2 The recent Institute'of Medicine report, Unequal Treatment, also called not only for training more minority researchers but promoting interdisciplinary collaboration among them.1 The spectrum of health disparities research begins with the mechanisms of health, disease, and illness in individuals, families, and population groups, then continues into clinical management, health care delivery, and, ultimately, public policy. The academic disciplines applied in this research include the biomedical sciences (both basic and clinical), epidemiology, the behavioral and social sciences, and more generally philosophy and bioethics. Health care disparities research, of course, examines the content, structure, processes, and outcomes that lead to the differences in health status, collectively described as disparities or what King has called studies of """"""""racial bias"""""""" by """"""""differential treatment researchers"""""""" and criticized for not including adequate social theory.3 . . Carole Bland, PhD, of the University of Minnesota has conducted numerous studies on the factors relating to faculty research productivity, both within.medicine and in other disciplines. She has identified the following characteristics of a successful researcher: a) highly socialized to the academic profession , b) mentor relationships before, during, and after training c) productive work habits established early in their careers d) contacts and interaction with professional peers '. """""""".? e) continued local peer support and stimulation f) ability to sustain simultaneous projects . g) sufficient dedicated research time : h) both internally and externally oriented . i) recipient of both.institutional autonomy and commitment j) supportive work environment where research is valued.
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