There is a critical lack of minority physician scientists engaged in and leading mental health clinical research. The proposed research educational program addresses this gap in targeting primarily minority psychiatry residents attending a small HBCU medical school, Morehouse School of Medicine, and partners - for the fourth year research elective - with the much larger, research oriented, Department of Psychiatry of Emory University School of Medicine. The proposed program permeates the four-year residency training program. By the end of the second year, the residents are becoming competent in evidence-based medicine principles, are research literate, and have participated in ongoing research projects. Collaboration with Emory assures a wide variety of experienced investigators with sponsored research, augmented by Morehouse's own resources, from which the PGY IV resident can select a mentor and research project. In addition to traditional research training subjects, this directly addresses cultural competency in mental health research, including bioethical, biological and psychological issues of minority populations in research content and conduct, and as a means to decreasing mental health disparities. The program will also facilitate a bridge to postdoctoral training and mentoring. Furthermore, the practice of mentoring others will be instilled in the participants, and they will be encouraged to mentor those in earlier years of training.
The specific aims i nclude: support educational experiences relevant to conducting mental health related clinical research that will attract, train and further career development of primarily under-represented minority physician scientists; provide mentored clinical research opportunities that will encourage physician scientists to embark on research projects directly applicable to clinical practice and transitional research; assure the training and experience necessary to progress to the next step of the participants careers, either by entering a research postdoctoral fellowship or by joining an existing research environment; and establish the feasibility of a paradigm of smaller medical schools, especially those with large minority residency programs, to partner with larger, more research oriented, local medical schools to provide more advanced training that otherwise would not possible. ? ? ?
| Shim, Ruth S; Baltrus, Peter; Bradford, L DiAnne et al. (2013) Characterizing depression and comorbid medical conditions in African American women in a primary care setting. J Natl Med Assoc 105:183-91 |
