For over 40 years, the Society for Epidemiologic Research has offered a Doctoral Student Dissertation Workshop prior to its annual meeting where student dissertation research is reviewed, critiqued, and discussed in a supportive and constructive atmosphere by highly respected senior epidemiologists who are productive researchers and have a variety of epidemiologic, clinical, and methodological expertise. However, there is an unmet need to work toward creating a new generation of students that actively think about how to make their work more consequential. Thus, we propose to realign this workshop to introduce and train doctoral students to translate their findings back to the community of stakeholders and to look for ways to use their research to foster meaningful interventions that either prevent or reduce the burden of adverse health outcomes. This translation aspect has emerged as a significant priority area of epidemiology and public health and there is a critical need for student training that is often unmet by their institutions. Thus, the aims of this workshop will be to a) connect students with established senior mentors who will assess the scientific rigor and impact of their research, b) provide training in how to disseminate and translate research not only in the scientific literature, but also in clinical practices and communities that are most strongly affected, c) educate the students on how the findings of their dissertation can be implemented to prevent adverse health outcomes, particularly among various ethnic, racial and underserved populations, and d) provide preferential slots for underrepresented minority doctoral students and students from less well-established programs to optimize the workshop?s training impact. This workshop aligns with the goals of NCATS by a) training doctoral students to describe how their research lends itself toward translation of findings into clinical and preventive care, b) ensuring that doctoral student research is geared toward improving the health of all populations, with a particular emphasis on improving minority health and reducing health disparities, c) offering additional training to underrepresented minority doctoral students and students from less well-established programs to support a broader and more diverse research workforce, and d) sensitizing doctoral students to the importance of disseminating their research to the entire community of stakeholders, not just to the community of their peers.
For nearly 50 years, a seminal mission of the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) has been to connect students and new researchers with senior epidemiologists and other population health researchers. As a major component of this mission, SER since 1977 has continuously sponsored an annual workshop where doctoral- level students working on dissertations interact with senior epidemiologists and other graduate students, with the goal of improving the quality and scientific rigor of their research. We are excited to add to the scientific rigor of this workshop, the opportunity to train our doctoral students on the importance and process of translating their observations into meaningful interventions that either prevent or reduce the burden of diseases and adverse health outcomes. This workshop is chaired by the President-Elect of SER, as a codified aspect of this elected officer?s responsibilities, and will be co-Chaired by Bernard Harlow, the PI of this application, who is an established epidemiologist, a former Director of the Populations and Community Engagement Core of the University of Minnesota CTSA, and currently President of SER.
