: Our overall goal is to develop and implement the Indiana Health Services Research (I-HSR) Training Program - an innovative training program that will prepare talented clinical and interdisciplinary investigators to conduct research that will improve the health of children and adults by optimizing access, quality and cost effectiveness of health services and translating research into practice and policy. There are three main components to the I-HSR Training Program: (1) completion of a two-year formal curriculum, at the end of which the trainee will receive either a master's degree in public health, clinical research or in another field of interest such as informatics, or health administration;(2) participation in the Health Services Research Seminar Series;and (3) active involvement in health services or TRIPP research under the mentorship of an I-HSR faculty member. Trainees who complete the I-HSR program will develop core competencies in health services and clinical research methods, biostatics, medical informatics, clinical trials, system redesign, research ethics, translational research, scientific writing, and grant preparation. In addition, they will be provided with a structured research mentoring program linked to an explicit timeline with benchmarks. This combination of didactic coursework and supervised research experience will result in the development and/or enhancement of trainees'research skills and knowledge, which are necessary for a career in health services research. We believe that formal coursework is most meaningful when applied to research in which the trainee is actively engaged. Therefore our training program is an integrated program where the formal classroom curriculum complements and parallels the trainee's research. The expertise of the program faculty as well as the past research agendas of the major participating departments will allow trainees of the I-HSR program to pursue a research agenda in any of AHRQ's eight priority areas. We propose supporting four postdoctoral trainees in year one, with two of the trainees participating in the Pediatric I-HSR program and two trainees participating in the Adult I-HSR program. All trainees will be expected to complete 2 years of training. In years two through five, we will select three or four additional trainees so that at any one point and time after year 1, we will have a maximum of seven trainees.
