The K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award would permit me to initiate a new interdisciplinary program of patient-oriented research and training for clinical investigators, with a focus on musculoskeletal disorders. The program would provide a unique resource for investigation and research training in these common, costly, understudied conditions. The research component would include preliminary and pilot studies leading to a large randomized controlled trial of a participatory ergonomics intervention for upper extremity disorders among Harvard University undergraduates. Our preliminary data indicate that half of undergraduates experience upper extremity symptoms while using the computer. At present there are no clinical trials to guide recommendations for prevention and management of these conditions. The training program would provide formal instruction in biostatistics; epidemiology, economics and health policy within the well-developed infrastructure of the Clinical Effectiveness Program at Harvard School of Public Health. In addition, trainees would meet with me regularly to discuss their research projects. In the context of these project-based meetings, they. would participate in a formal mentoring curriculum addressing key conceptual (eg design, power, analytic strategy, psychometric properties of measures, writing), logistical (eg recruitment, cohort retention, data management), and career planning aspects of clinical research. Finally, trainees would present their work and critique the research of others in the weekly research conference of the Robert Brigham Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center.
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