The goal of this action is to alleviate the critical shortage in Endocrinology Fellows providing comprehensive medical services to patients admitted to the NIH clinical Center for participation in protocols that are essential for the continuation of clinical research projects executed by the endocrinology branches of the Division of Intramural Research, NIDDK. Historically, Fellows recruited to the Interinstitute Endocrine Training Program have been responsible for the medical care of these patien . However, even though the NIH patient care population and more specifically the percentage of minorities patients has increased significantly, the recruitment efforts to bring this same diversity into medical and post graduate medical education programs and the workforce remains at a deficit and overwhelmingly non-minority. Likewise, recruitment of Fellows for endocrine training at NIDDK has declined, reflecting the same nationwide trend away from medicine and more specifically subspecialties of internal medicine. In an effort to respond to this need, the Institute proposes to utilize minority physicians participating in a NIDDK pilot training program for third year Internal Medicine Residents (hereinafter referred to as Senior Residents) and Fellows in the field of endocrinology from a Historically Black College/ University (HBCU) with an affiliated teaching hospital (hereinafter referred to as Howard University, Howard University Hospital). While providing these medical services the Senior Residents/Fellows shall gain clinical and laboratory instruction and experience involving complex patients with endocrinopathies not readily seen outside the NIH. Moreover, the project shall provide for the University and the physicians a unique opportunity to provide these medical services in a highly technical biomedical research facility and to expand the University's current scientific and medical research programs to include the much needed endocrinological diseases research crucial to minorities. In summary, this proposed training program shall enable the NIH to provide medical and research experiences in the endocrine diseases that would not ordinarily be made available to minority physicians because of the limited resources at their HBCU and its teaching hospital.
