The primary mission of the Research Training Program at the University of Washington Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OtoHNS) is to educate residents who have the prerequisite research training, commitment, and experience to develop and support research programs that will enhance the treatment of patients with diseases of communication, the special senses of hearing, balance and olfaction, airway regulation and cancer of the head and neck. This program creates a research culture, facilitating investigative activity throughout the residency period, and beyond. This continuation of an Institutional Training Grant (T32) that began in 1984 supports full-time research training for every OtoHNS Resident for one or two years near the beginning of residency. Residents are required to continue research productivity during each year of the Residency Program after the T32-supported research period, and this research productivity is facilitated by additional department-supported research periods free of daily clinical responsibility. In addition to four positions for Resident Research Trainees, we request one position for a Post-Residency Clinical Scholar to obtain full-time research training in conjunction with a subspecialty clinical fellowship, and one position for a Predoctoral Medical Student Research Scholar who wishes to acquire a full year of intensive research training. Trainee positions not filled by physicians in one of the programs noted above are awarded on a competitive basis for one-year PhD Postdoctoral Fellows recruited by OtoHNS Program Faculty, facilitating the collection of data enhancing successful applications for Individual NRSA F32 Award applications. Concerted effort is made to recruit and train under-represented minority candidates. The Research Training Program is continuously evaluated and altered to fit the changing needs of the research trainees. Funded investigators in biomedical science throughout the University of Washington system are available as potential Primary Research Mentors, and a group of 16 investigators with primary appointments in the OtoHNS Department or experience mentoring our T32-supported research trainees are named in addition to the Director (PI) and two Co-Directors (Co-Investigators). Analysis of the results of this program over the past 15 years reveals that >60% of the physician trainees that are out of training have joined full-time academic institutions.
This application describes the University of Washington Research Training Program for Otolaryngology surgeons. Surgical residents and post-residency surgeons will learn to conduct world-class research aimed at testing the outcomes of current practices and developing new therapies in areas of medicine relevant to the practice of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, including, but not limited to diseases of hearing and balance, other communication disorders, olfaction, and diseases of the airways.
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