Trauma remains an important problem in American life, accounting for a truly staggering loss of productive years, and consuming a parallel share of health care resources. The morbidity and mortality after 24 hours is closely related to a syndrome of multi-system organ failure. This syndrome has become a major focus point for research because of the wide range of derangements which occur at a cellular level, and because the evolution of our insights into the molecular mechanisms and the integrative biology of acute inflammatory disease are so graphically illustrated in post-traumatic multi-system failure. There is considerable optimism that this basic research will ultimately lead to specific and novel forms of preventive and/or curative therapy. There is a growing concern, however, for a disproportion between the pace of expansion of basic knowledge of cellular and molecular processes that might serve therapeutic ends and the actual translation of that work into clinical settings. Conversely, the availability of physician-scientists able to evaluate and translate concepts from this rapidly evolving science into clinically relevant settings is decreasing. The possibility of an increasing discordance here is of grave concern because implicit delays in application of new discoveries to clinical settings. Our training program is designed as a means of producing both M.D. and Ph.D. scientists who participate in the dialogue between clinical and basic science. We believe that the individuals should have the skill sets needed to obtain future NIH funding, including the ability to partner with other scientists and to fully understand the responsible conduct of research. We believe that the best training environment for post-doctoral trainees is in a matrix including both clinical and basic scientists, an intellectual network supporting our programmatic research goals. We have worked to ensure the quality of mentoring these trainees receive, and have closely examined the outcomes of our past trainees. We have, over the fifteen years that this program has been in existence, had considerable experience in the intricacies of these tasks, and believe we have had considerable success. This program has evolved into a strong partnership between our trauma, cardiovascular, and anesthesia research groups at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the critical care, surgical and pulmonary biology groups at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center. We have added junior researchers in these groups who have recently obtained NIH funding, and have organized a leadership transition plan for this program.
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