The Emory Psychiatry Clinical Scientist Training Program (CSTP) (R25, NIMH Research Education Grant) will create a research-focused residency training program to address the critical shortage of well-trained physician scientists pursuing a career in academic research. The Institute of Medicine deemed that sustaining and nurturing the research interests of residents is vital to the future of psychiatry research. This proposal systematically addresses these issues through four specific aims:
AIM 1 will establish an Enhanced Research Curriculum for a broad-based exposure to research approaches and critical thinking for all residents.
This aim will incorporate formal didactics, hands-on experiental learning activities, exposure to faculty researchers in a Particle to Professor Series, a Mentor Match program to facilitate early integration with program faculty and their research programs, and a two-month Research Intensive Elective to engage and embed motivated residents in research labs in the PGY-2 year.
AIM 2 will establish the CSTP Recruitment and Admission process to proactively identify and engage promising residents for participation in the structured, mentor-based CSTP research track. We anticipate the Emory CSTP will become an attractive draw for applicants to the general psychiatry residency program, thus further promoting recruitment of promising physician scientists.
AIM 3 will establish the CSTP Mentored Research Track, where CSTP research track residents will have protected time for mentored research and intensive research didactics as well as specialized research training available through the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
AIM 4 will establish the Evaluation and Dissemination component of the CSTP, which will monitor measurable benchmarks of progress for research track residents and the program, and will work toward engaging other residency programs to incorporate Emory CSTP strategies to promote resident research training. The overarching goal of the Emory CSTP is to supplement an already thriving and successful Psychiatry Residency Training Program with a strong, research-focused component that includes enhanced research training for all residents, while providing specialized mentored research training opportunities for residents poised to become physician-scientists. The proposed program emphasizes increased access, proactive engagement and innovative mentored research opportunities through internet-based strategies, experiential research learning activities, mentorship throughout residency and exposure to innovative research faculty and research programs in areas including neuromodulation, the neurobiology of fear and trauma-related disorders, behavioral immunology and endocrinology, neurodevelopment, translational social neuroscience and community psychiatry. Given a solid research training base, ongoing faculty support, mentorship, and independent research experiences as well as specialized research training, CSTP research track residents will be well-equipped to pursue academic careers, working to solve the most pressing problems in psychiatry.
Addressing the significant mental health burden cannot be accomplished in the absence of meaningful scientific discovery. The proposed Clinical Scientist Training Program will address a critical shortage of well- trained physician-scientists, identified by leaders in the field of psychiatry, utilizing an innovative research training platform, grounded in state-of the-art clinical neuroscience research.
