A physician has a responsibility to strengthen medical knowledge and upgrade the quality of care for the future. Patient-oriented clinical research brings advancements from the basic science laboratory to the bedside. In assessing the effectiveness of new treatments, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) is accepted as the gold standard. While this method has been well embraced by some disciplines, Surgery has been less enthusiastic. Accordingly, there is a paucity of RCTs that assess surgical therapies. Training for a career in surgery must emphasize the importance of such trials and prepare future surgeons for involvement in patient-oriented clinical research. The primary aim of this project is to develop a program that will provide the education and experience necessary to prepare for a career in academic surgery, specifically, pediatric surgery. This year-long program will contain exposure to patient-oriented research through a variety of research and didactic training. The research portion of the program entails three main goals: 1) to determine how clinical decisions are currently made in the field of pediatric surgery through an analysis and assessment of the RCT literature and the case series data; 2) to actively participate in a prospective randomized trial in surgery (""""""""Surgery for Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) in Human Infants: A Randomized Trial""""""""); and 3) to design and implement a prospective randomized trial in pediatric surgery. A core curriculum through the Departments of Medicine, Health Research and Policy, and the GCRC has been developed in order to gain more detailed didactic training related to patient-oriented research. These didactic sessions will be supplemented by attendance at surgical conferences. This program provides a unique opportunity to utilize the resources of the GCRC and a collaboration of physicians and departments at Stanford Medical Center in order to gain the training essential for a career in patient- oriented research.
