Based on its areas of research and research methods leadership, over the past decade at the Tufts University/New England Medical Center (NEMC) Boston campus, a research methods curriculum has developed that includes clinical research, health services research, outcomes research, clinical decision making, clinical epidemiology, and related fields. Based in the Tufts/NEMC Division of Clinical Care Research, it now is a two-year training curriculum for the four fellows in the NRSA Clinical Care Research/Health Services Research Postdoctorate Training Program (T32 HS00060) and two fellows in partnering NRSA Infectious Disease Training Programs; a companion Tufts MPH in Clinical Care Research/Clinical Investigation is an option. The program's components are: 1) required core and elective courses, including lectures, traditional course work, seminars, and workshops; and 2) required performance of an independent self-initiated research project, with active support and monitoring through a system of program mentors"""""""" and """"""""project mentors."""""""" By providing a curriculum that thereby transmits core knowledge and skills and requires excellence and self-initiation, the program aims to train innovative and successful clinical researchers. Our current Clinical Care Research Program and its component courses have become increasingly sought-after by training programs and faculty from other Tufts/NEMC campus programs and affiliated institutions, but we now can accommodate very few. Thus our objective by this application is to enhance our current program by expanding the breadth of offerings from 7 to 19 courses, and trainee capacity from 6 to 40 full-time participants. The new courses will allow creation of three concentration areas: Clinical Investigation; Health Services and Outcomes Research; and Biostatistics/Epidemiology. An optional research-focused MS degree in Clinical Care Research through the on-campus Sackler Graduate School with the same three concentrations will facilitate obtaining the MS degree for those so-desiring. These enhancements should allow us to be able to include the growing array of fellows and faculty desiring our two-year curriculum as part of their clinical research training, and to support Tufts/NEMC campus applications for further training programs and support.
