The initial funding of the University of Pittsburgh's K-30 application resulted in the development of our Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP), which has become an important foundation for clinical research at the University of Pittsburgh. We have trained 68 participants and 43 other individuals have participated in courses developed through the CRTP. These experiences and the feedback from these trainees form the basis for our competitive renewal, which seeks to enhance the CRTP program through the following specific Aims:
Aim 1) Expand and enhance access to the CRTP training program. Our current program is directed toward junior faculty and fellows. However, trainees may make decisions regarding career paths earlier, and may be lost to the clinical research community. Therefore, we will develop clinical research training programs for residents (a clinical research tract within the context of ACGME approved residencies) and develop a clinical research program for medical students, the Clinical Scientist Training Program (CSTP). CSTP will enroll 10 students in a five year program and additional 4 residents will be accepted into CRTP per year. Additionally, in order to assure access to our programs for trainees of all levels and with different clinical responsibilities, and to enable trainees to continue to learn while offsite, we will develop a series of web-based courses that offer components of the curriculum that can be taken at various times and at an individualized pace.
Aim 2) Expand and enhance the CRTP curriculum to meet rapidly changing clinical research training needs. One of the successful components of our program has been our ability to develop and modify courses in response to trainee needs, and these mechanisms will be enhanced and formalized. Based on current feedback from trainees, strong support from our curriculum advisory committee and consistent with the recommendations of the NIH Roadmap, we will develop a tract in translational research. This track will provide skills and knowledge necessary to promote multi- and inter-disciplinary collaborations that are essential to translational research and will enhance the movement of scientific discovery to clinical practice.
Aim 3) Develop a formal mentoring program. Mentors play a pivotal role in developing new investigators, and we plan to devote extensive efforts to strengthening our mentoring activities by developing training and educational activities for both mentors and mentees, monitoring of mentoring activities, and developing mechanisms to intervene early when problems are identified.
