The goal of the project is to create a comprehensive training program to stimulate interest and train minority students in patient- oriented, translational research. The majority of current minority student research training programs focus on basic science research. Although critically important, they do not adequately address the need for minority clinical investigators, and seldom provide a motivational vision of how basic science research translates to improved health. This program will bring together two highly successful programs: I) the Mayo minority student summer research program, and 2) the education program in patient-oriented research at the NIH-supported Mayo General Clinical Research Center. The new program will expand these activities to include trainees ranging from under-graduates to postdoctoral fellows. A new method will be piloted to evaluate the impact of the program on trainees by the conclusion of their participation in the program, rather than waiting for several years to assess career outcomes. Specifically, the project will: 1. Revise an education program in patient-oriented research for internal medicine residents to create an 8-week """"""""Introduction to Patient-Oriented, Translational Research"""""""" and a year-long """"""""Comprehensive Training Program in Patient-Oriented, Translational Research"""""""" for trainees ranging from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows. 2. Provide minority students with a dynamic research experience under the guidance of skilled mentors. 3. Bring together minority students working in basic science laboratories with those working on patient-oriented or translational research questions to demonstrate the connectivity of research """"""""from bench to bedside"""""""". 4. Motivate students interested in basic science research to continue this career path by showing them the direct applicability of such research to clinical problems. 5. Re-direct minority trainees headed in purely clinical career paths toward patient-oriented research. 6. Using semi-structured interviews, determine what changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors occur in trainees during the 8- week and year-long programs which influence their interest in patient-oriented research.
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