This continuing multifaceted University of Arizona (DA) short-term Medical Student Research Program (MSRP) seeks to introduce, train and nurture inquiring medical students in basic and clinical medical research;and further, to provide the stimulus for subsequent intensive and extensive research experiences. Building on the past 25 years of high level participation, esprit-de-corps, and outstanding trainee productivity (research presentations, publications, awards, and advanced research), full-time opportunities for summer/ vacation laboratory and clinical investigation will be offered under experienced faculty mentors predominantly concentrated in Specialized Centers of Excellence focusing on in vivo, in vitro, in situ, in silico and modeling approaches to the cardiovascular system and its disorders (e.g. heart failure, developmental abnormalities, cardiac arrest/resuscitation, transplantation, artificial hearts, lymphedema-angiodysplasia syndromes);cancer (e.g., prevention, epidemiology, detection, pharmacogenomics, drug development);neurosciences (e.g., cognition, molecular psychiatry, neurotransmitters, drug addiction, neural regeneration), and a variety of other areas spanning the full spectrum of research topics in children, adults and special populations so as to capture the individual interests and talents of medical students. The research experience will be integrated into an innovative Curriculum on Medical Ignorance (CMI), concentrated in a Summer Institute and complemented by a menu of year-round trainee-related activities (seminars and workshops, clinical correlations, advanced extracurricular research through a student-initiated Research Honors Distinction Track, visiting professorships, """"""""thriving"""""""" workshops, and career advising), open to all medical students.
CMI aims to foster attitudes and skills to recognize and deal with the vast shifting world of medical ignorance [""""""""what we know we don't know (current research), don't know we don't know (future discovery), and think we know but don't (error)""""""""] from molecular to clinical medicine. Detailed short-term and long-term formative and summative evaluation of the program and participants, including database registry, individual development plans, and career portfolios, will be continued to document effectiveness and promote networking.
Based on our 25-year track record reflected in the most recent MSRP followup, we anticipate cultivating a large number of scientific physicians who understand and can contribute to the research enterprise and, in increasing numbers, a growing cadre of enlightened physician-scientist leaders to replenish the dwindling supply of translational medical researchers and fulfill the NIH Roadmap goal to expedite the movements of scientific advances from bench to bedside to community.
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