The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (PENN) has developed a unique and exciting program to prepare promising medical students to become leaders at the cutting edge of clinical neuroscience practice and research. The present proposal is aimed at enhancing this program in such a way as to further encourage its students to enter research careers in mental health. The advent of managed care has placed academic medical centers under severe economic pressures to trim research and education budgets. Medical students are aware of these trends and are discouraged from pursuing research careers. MD/PhD programs encourage students interested in basic research, but few mechanisms exist for nurturing clinical researchers. In an attempt to counter these tendencies, PENN has created the Clinical Neuroscience Track (CNST). This program identifies incoming medical students who are interested in the clinical neurosciences, develops in them an esprit de corps with each other and with the clinical neuroscience faculty, and trains them in the skills of scientific thinking necessary to evaluate and participate in clinically relevant research. Students also perform a research project. The CNST has been very successful and after four years, has grown to over 100 students. Thus it can no longer be run without cost sharing by extramural sources. The existing CNST will now be modified in ways that will further strengthen the exposure of its medical students to mental health research. The following specific aims are proposed:
Aim 1. To identify incoming medical students who may be interested in research in mental health, expose them to mental health related research throughout their medical school careers and instill in them the skills of critical thinking necessary to evaluate this research.
Aim 2. To provide the students with research experiences during medical school, in order to encourage them to consider careers in mental health research.
Aim 3. To maintain contact with these students after they graduate in order to assist them with their career development, as well as to monitor the success of the program. Participation by minorities and women will be strongly encouraged. The CNST will be administered by a director with the assistance of a coordinator. There will be two major committees - an educational planning committee and a research committee. It is expected that each year, 15 of the initial 20-30 students will complete the entire program, including the research project. This program will increase the number of physicians entering careers in mental health research and serve as a model for other medical schools to emulate.
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