A consortium of six California State University campuses proposes to continue an international research training program at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, York, and London in Great Britain, the Chiang Mai University in Thailand, the University of Buenos Aires, and Institutes of basic and clinical research in Argentina. The objectives are: 1. To increase the numbers of students belonging to populations with health disparities or underrepresented minorities that pursue advanced degrees in basic sciences, biomedical or clinical research fields. These students will be part of the effort to establish a cadre of researchers in these fields that thoroughly understand health disparities populations, 2. To make these students aware of minority and international health problems and to prepare them to seek novel approaches to address them, 3. To inculcate in these students the importance and opportunities of international collaboration in research to address health disparities from a global health perspective, and 4. To contribute to the reduction, and eventual elimination of health disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. To achieve these objectives 8-10 students will participate in 10-12 weeks summer research experiences in which they will: a) receive training in experimental research design, original data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and the use of current scientific literature, b) become familiar with the cultural characteristics affecting the scientists in the foreign location, c) be provided opportunities to communicate their research results in the form of publications and abstracts as well as poster and oral presentations at scientific meetings. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their scientific research experience at the foreign site, and d) be mentored to ensure the completion of the current academic degree as well as pursue advanced degrees. The foreign faculty mentors and locations have been chosen to provide the students with the highest quality research training in subjects and systems within the goals of the NCMHD, and to expose them to environments with health disparities among racial, ethnic, and poor populations similar to those found in the United States. The typical trainee will have had completed 2 years of coursework in an appropriate major, a GPA of 3 or higher, high interest in a scientific research career as well as previous research experience.
The NIH has proposed a multi pronged approach to address the problem of health disparities experienced by a number of communities. This training program fits within this approach by contributing to the establishment of a group of researchers that understand and are interested in working on issues that contribute to the reduction of health disparities. This program covers an array of relevant training opportunities to help understand biological, socioeconomic, public health, and behavioral factors related to health disparities.
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