Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is the conduct and synthesis of systematic research comparing interventions and strategies to promote health and diagnose and treat disease. This research is intended to inform patients, providers, and decision-makers about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances. CER is an evolving field that involves diverse methodological approaches drawn from multiple disciplines, including the clinical health professions, epidemiology, statistics, and economics. Because the field is new, existing opportunities for training in CER are quite limited. To meet the growing need for expertise in CER, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago propose a joint mentored career development program in CER for faculty, fellows, or postdoctoral scholars. This proposed program offers didactic and experiential training over 2 years for two cohorts of 3 CER Scholars. The didactic curriculum offers grounding in the fundamentals of CER and training in focused areas of concentration that allow participants to specialize in design of clinical trials, value of information and decision analytic approaches, or methodologies for observational data analysis in CER. With close mentorship from highly experienced mentors, Scholars will develop and implement their own research project over the two years they spend in the program, and will also be expected to apply for external funds to support their research after the end of the KM1 funding. Scholars will benefit from exposure to faculty and research opportunities at both universities, and in particular from the AHRQ-funded Economics and Hospital Medicine CERT at the University of Chicago and the CERT and DEcIDE center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Through a cycle of regular evaluation of both the Scholars and the program, the intent is to produce a coherent, interdisciplinary, and inter-institutional training/career development program in CER that can be sustained after the proposed funding has concluded.
Comparative effectiveness research (CER) can improve public health by identifying more effective interventions to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions. Mentored career development for faculty or fellows CER will disseminate this approach more widely, accelerating research and enhancing the impact of this field on health.
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