The Utah Interdisciplinary BIRCWH Career Development Program in Women's Health, for shod, here after, The Utah BIRCWH Program, constitutes a collaboration of the Colleges of Health, Nursing, Pharmacy and Medicine, all from the University of Utah Health Sciences Center (UUHSC). Participating School of Medicine departments include Family & Preventive Medicine, internal Medicine, Obstetrics &Gynecology, Neurology and Surgery. Participating Institutes include the Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, The Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital and the local Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The goal of the Utah BIRCWH Program is to identify and select able, academically committed Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research (IWHR) Scholars, and to provide them, over the span of five years, with the requisite set of skills expected of independent Women's Health Investigators. Although the UUHSC is home to one of twenty Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Programs, this is NOT another WRHR application. Indeed, the Utah BIRCWH Program represents a fundamentally distinct conceptual model replete with anon-overlapping interdisciplinary group of Mentors, new research tracks, as well as novel deliverables (e.g. an MSPH degree; see below). The focus of the two-year Entry Level Stage of the Utah BIRCWH Program will be the rigorous mastering of the scientific method as well as the acquisition of the most fundamental basic, translational, and clinical investigative tools. Entry level IWHR Scholars will be afforded the unique opportunity to pursue a Masters of Science Degree in Public Health (MSPH), an established innovative program that is especially designed to meet the needs of health care professionals. Applicants with significant prior research experience (basic, translational, or clinical) may enter the Utah BIRCWH Program at the Advanced Level Stage, a three-year commitment. Four principal areas of research emphasis will be offered to IWHR Scholars: (1) Aging Disorders, (2) Cardiovascular Disorders, (3) Cognitive l Neurologic Disorders, and (4) Oncologic Disorders. Within each of these areas, research Mentors have been carefully identified and committed. The proposed mentors, 17 in all, boast a combined, direct, federal funding pool of approximately $18,000,000. Importantly, institutional support, in excess of $800,000, has also been allocated. Led by two academically-committed Women's Health Investigators, Eli Y. Adashi, MD, PI, and Leigh A. Neuymayer, MD, Program Director, the Utah BIRCWH Program will offer an outstanding intellectual and educational environment for the mentored development of committed investigators in the discipline of women's health.
