This application requests five years of funding for the UTMB training program in Health of Older Minorities. This program was originally funded in 1999 and now supports three pre-doctoral and three postdoctoral positions. In this application we are requesting continued funding for three pre-doctoral and three postdoctoral trainees. In the past nine years (1999-2008), we have funded a total of 13 pre-doctoral fellows and 15 postdoctoral fellows. Two trainees were both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. Trainees from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (African-American and Hispanic) represented 23% of our pre-doctoral fellows and 33% of our postdoctoral fellows. Overall, 27% of the 26 individual fellows funded on the training grant are African-American or Hispanic. Pre-doctoral fellows will be enrolled in the Preventive Medicine and Community Health (PMCH) Graduate Program, in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Within PMCH, students choose from curricula including: Sociomedical Sciences, Rehabilitation Sciences, and Health Services Research. We will recruit both PhD and MD postdoctoral fellows. Postdoctoral fellows with PhDs will usually take minimal course work (no more than one course per semester) and concentrate on obtaining research experience in minority aging. Postdoctoral fellows with an MD will usually enroll in a master's or doctoral degree program in Preventive Medicine and Community Health. All trainees will also participate in ongoing seminars, professional conferences, and research programs with a focus on minority and underserved populations. As a result of their training, fellows will: develop skills in specific curricula content and methods (pre-doctoral training);integrate social science and/or medical backgrounds with psychosocial and epidemiological content and methods relevant to the study of older minorities;and participate in ongoing minority aging and health research with faculty nationally recognized in minority aging research. Our team mentor approach pairs each trainee with a senior faculty mentor, a biostatistical mentor, and other mentors as appropriate to train each effectively in health services research. Program mentees have gone on to successful careers as researchers and faculty.
Minority older adults have historically greater barriers to health care access, have unique needs, and are on track for future demographic growth. With few trained Mexican American and other minority investigators in the US, we aim to recruit promising new investigators from minority undergraduate institutions and attract minority MDs to research careers in minority aging. UTMB has the largest enrollment of Mexican American medical students in the continental US as well as internationally recognized scholars of Hispanic aging.
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