Mayo Clinic has a long and respected tradition of excellence and innovation in its clinical practice, research and education programs. Mayo cares for 400,000 patients yearly, providing enormous breadth in clinical experience. The Mayo Graduate School of Medicine is the largest residency training program in the world (training 1200 physicians yearly in over 100 specialties). Mayo also sustains many well-established clinical research programs including: the Mayo General Clinical Research Center (NCRR-funded for 27 years), the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (NCI-funded for 25 years) and Mayo Clinic's Rochester Epidemiology Project (NIAMS-funded for 32 years). The design and implementation of our proposed multidisciplinary clinical research training program builds on and augments this rich tradition. Our ultimate objective is to develop a new generation of clinician investigators able to use clinical research methods to translate biological and technological discoveries into advances in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. To do this we will systematically and efficiently teach the core competencies necessary for conducting sound clinical research, using newly developed and revised didactic courses. These required courses will be supplemented with new elective courses designed to allow trainees from a variety of disciplines, to customize the program for their own needs. We will integrate the didactic curriculum with a mentor-based research experience. Then, by combining this curriculum with other Mayo Graduate School Masters Program offerings, we will offer either a Certificate in Clinical Research (12 credits) or a new degree: Masters in Clinical Research (24 credits). We will maximize the impact of the CRTP by aggressively promoting individual courses to all faculty, students and trainees at Mayo, thereby enhancing the academic clinical research environment in the entire institution. We will create an effective infrastructure for the proposal by building linkages between key facilities, departments and groups within the institution; and by developing and maintaining an outstanding pool of qualified faculty and mentors. Finally, we will employ an innovative and rigorous system for program assessment and improvement based on novel interviewing techniques (developed in our NIGMS funded program), an already established network database system for tracking graduates' career progression, and course evaluation tools. Importantly, this proposal also has the full support of the institutional leadership. In fact, it is a logical extension of Mayo's ongoing efforts to invigorate our clinical research enterprise. Thus, the proposed program capitalizes on Mayo's strong, existing clinical practice, education and research activities; creates synergies among several key individuals and groups; and has the full support of the institutional leadership. Together, these characteristics will ensure its success.
