We propose an institutional training grant to train physician/scientists who will contribute to improved diagnostic, treatment and prevention strategies for children with blood diseases and malignancies. Fellows will train in either translational or clinical research at the Children's Hospital of Iowa and the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The University of Iowa is home to an academic medical center that provides the full range of health care including tertiary services for a large geographic area of predominantly rural families. A small, rapidly growing, minority population also lives and works in our catchment area and receives care in our institution. Our rural environment offers unique opportunities both for training pediatric subspecialists regarding hematologic and malignant diseases afflicting these children and for enrolling these children in clinical trials. We propose the following goals: 1. Expand opportunities for trainees to pursue academic careers with a focus on hematologic and malignant diseases of childhood. The Iowa Department of Pediatrics has an accredited ACGME fellowship program in hematology/oncology and has established a track record of recruiting highly qualified pediatricians who then pursue a career in academic medicine. In this application, we propose an institutional training program to focus on translational and clinical research in children with hematologic or malignant diseases. Our department currently has an NICHD training grant in neonatal biology and a NHLBI training grant in pediatric cardiology, thus providing important training support, including an established luncheon discussion series in which all pediatric subspecialty fellows participate, and a unique fellowship evaluation program specifically developed at Iowa. In this way, the entire Iowa Department of Pediatrics faculty will work together with experienced mentors in internal medicine, psychiatry, neurology, anatomy &cell biology, microbiology, physiology, anesthesia, radiology, radiation biology, and surgery to provide mentoring teams that provide a balanced training program in translational or clinical research that focuses on hematologic or oncologic diseases of childhood. Faculty in the College of Public Health participate in the K-30 program as well as in our formal evaluation program. 2. Provide trainees with the opportunity to obtain a Master's degree or non-degree certification in either translational or clinical medicine. The core curriculum for each fellow will be concentrated in either the University of Iowa K-30 program offering a master's in clinical research or in our unique University of Iowa graduate program in translational research. We have a well recognized expertise in basic medical science, as well as a growing expertise in clinical research among our proposed mentoring teams. Together, these strengths will form the foundation on which we will build a training program in translational or clinical research. Thus, in addition to certification or a master's degree in patient-oriented research, each fellow will have developed an individual research plan with sufficient preliminary data to submit a K-23 award at the completion of the fellowship. 3. Recruit and train women for successful careers that will benefit children with hematologic and oncologic disorders. The number of women entering medicine is steadily increasing. Nowhere is this more evident than in pediatric residency programs. Unfortunately, the number of women in academic pediatrics and in pediatric subspecialties such as pediatric hematology/oncology is not increasing. At Iowa, we have developed a strong group of 32 mentors, including 15 women faculty with active research programs, who will address the special needs of women in their mentoring approach. We propose didactic sessions, group discussions and additional individual mentoring opportunities to support women seeking academic careers.
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