Boston Geriatric Research Scholars Program The Boston Geriatric Research Scholars Program has been developed in response to the increasing need to recruit physician scientists into the field of aging research. The Program aims to provide a short-term aging research and mentoring experience to medical students early in their career, students will become educated and enthusiastic about the career opportunities in academic, clinical, and research geriatric medicine. The Program, originally developed as the Harvard Site of the RPS/Hartford/AFAR Medical Student Scholars Program has provided short term research training experiences to over 145 medical students since 1989. The proposed Program expands on the past experience by increasing the number of high quality mentors, adding an Mentor Advisory Council for program oversite, and focusing efforts to recruit minority Scholars from Harvard, the Jackson Heart Study, and the AFAR applicant pool. By providing minority Scholars with minority-aging research experiences, we seek to invest them in the study of aging. The Program will provide an 8-12 week aging related research experience for 11 Scholars: four from the AFAR application pool, three from Jackson Heart (2 in Boston, 1 in Jackson), and four from the funded BIDMC T32 grant. Additionally, students will receive training in protection of human subjects, geriatric research methodology, and clinical geriatrics. Students will present their research in an oral presentation, in a 10 page written report, and will be strongly encouraged to present at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society. The Program will track students through their medical training and career decisions. By developing a strong relationship with the students during the program, the Scholar tracking will be a continuation of the mentoring experience and a forum to increase Scholar interest in aging research.
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