The PI and collaborators propose a 3-year collaborative, cross-disciplinary project titled """"""""Cardiovascular Disease Research Ethics (""""""""CADRE"""""""") Program,"""""""" consisting of short-term courses with a goal of improving the skills of biomedical researchers at identifying and addressing the ethical, legal and social implications of cardiovascular research involving human research participants; course content will be based upon a national needs assessment. The CADRE Program brings together a team of expert and experienced investigators, and includes a curriculum advisory committee and community-based organizations to help guide project development, implementation and evaluation. Both one-day on-site and online courses will be offered. On-site courses will be held three times annually at different sites across the U.S., including one course held concurrently with a national scientific society (e.g., the American Heart Association), a second course held on the campus of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and a third course held at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas; each course is intended to draw participants from across the U.S. Special recruitment and travel assistance will be used to draw historically underserved course participants. The online course will be web-based, asynchronous, and interactive. Participants will be asked to complete course evaluations, and continuing education credit will be provided. The project consists of four specific aims and related research methods: 1) develop a modular, transportable ethics training program in cardiovascular research that includes both traditional onsite and computer-mediated instruction; 2) deliver annually three needs-driven one-day onsite courses tailored to scientific and institutional constituents, one of which is tailored to community, non-scientific constituents; 3) deliver a skill-based, case-centered online course with user-defined, feedback-driven instructional content; and 4) assess instructional effectiveness through participant and user evaluations, pre- and post-course knowledge tests, and long-term surveys.
