The purpose of the training grant program is to provide systematic multidisciplinary predoctoral and postdoctoral research training into the biobehavioral, biological, psychosocial, sociocultural and population based public health factors involved in the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Research training is also offered for study of neural and hormonal mechanisms that link biobehavioral variables to cardiovascular pathophysiology and CVD. The framework for this research is cardiovascular behavioral medicine, which involves the integration of population-based public health studies, clinical investigation and basic science. In the present iteration of our program we have successfully incorporated the research training of Public Health Science pre- and post-doctoral trainees and in the proposed competitive renewal we intend also to train post-doctoral level physicians in relevant clinical-translational research. One of the major objectives of the training grant is to mentor trainees into developing a coherent research portfolio. All of our trainees have a primary preceptor and at least one co-mentor. Of 2 post-doctoral and 5 pre-doctoral trainees all have presented a poster or oral presentation for at least one national or international scientific meeting. All trainees are currently active in supervised journal manuscript writing and all have had papers accepted by refereed journals or had manuscript proposals approved by the MESA, HCHS/SOL and/or similar publications committees. A major emphasis in the human aspect of this research has been on ethnic/racial diversity and minority health. A final objective of our training program is the placement of trainees in research positions, where as evidence of scholarly productivity they develop major funded research programs. During the past 10 years more than half of our trainees have secured positions in which they are heavily engaged in research; several have been successful in obtaining extramural research funding. Given the trajectory of our program, we look forward to even greater productivity in the near future.
The research conducted by our trainees involves studying the behavioral, biological and social factors that influence cardiovascular disease as well as processes and procedures that may prevent or amelioriate such diseases. From a public health perspective our research is particularly important because it focuses upon relatively poor underserved people, health disparities and understudied groups including Hispanics/Latinos who are not fluent in English.
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