(APPLICATION ABSTRACT): The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) played a major role throughout the 20th century in Texas and nationally in educating minority physicians. For example, by 1978, two-thirds of all physicians of Hispanic origin in the United States had trained at UTMB. The UTMB School of Medicine ranks fourth among all public and private schools in the percentage of graduates from under-represented minority groups. UTMB also has many excellent faculty from minority groups. While UTMB has relatively strong research programs in some areas, such as epidemiologic studies of older Mexican Americans, it lacks the appropriate infrastructure to foster a strong program in health services research (HSR). The overall aim of this current application is to increase the capacity of UTMB and its faculty to conduct rigorous health service research. The support from the Minority Research Infrastructure Support Program will be leveraged by additional funding from the UTMB Sealy Center on Aging, the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, and the School of Allied Health Sciences, which will allow us to substantially increase the number of faculty and students conducting HSR. A major focus of that research will involve studies of medically underserved populations.
Our specific aims are as follows: 1) Increase the number of current UTMB faculty who conduct health services research, 2) recruit additional faculty with specific research expertise in HSR, and 3) strengthen the HSR infrastructure of UTMB. The ideal state that we wish to achieve is as follows: UTMB would have vibrant, productive HSR throughout the clinical departments with a focus on studies of underserved populations. UTMB will have a cadre of independently funded minority HSR investigators, who will serve as role models and mentors in our ongoing efforts to recruit students and junior faculty from under-represented minority groups into HSR. Finally, the structure of HSR research will be like the hub and spokes of a wheel, with independent HSR investigators in most clinical departments, supported by the hub of the program in HSR, which coordinates the HSR curriculum, provides research support services, and oversees faculty recruitment and mentoring.
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