The training of quantitative basic scientists in clinically-related imaging science is increasingly important. Excellent imaging sciences are well represented at Penn in multiple schools, but no formal integration of efforts in training existed, nor was there a formal clinical component to the training until the recent creation of the Training Program in Biomedical Imaging and Informational Sciences. Established in 2006 under the auspices of the HHMI-NIBIB Interfaces Initiative, the program represents a partnership led by the Institute for Medicine and Engineering and the Department of Radiology in collaboration with many other departments across multiple Schools. Our premise is that the most successful research and technologies in quantitative imaging science are those that integrate clinical relevance, mathematical rigor, and engineering finesse. Accordingly, the new program embraces strong clinical exposure alongside analytical science. The objective is to develop a new kind of interdisciplinary training by ensuring that students attain a level of integration that would allow them to become the next generation of leaders in hypothesis-driven, clinically focused biomedical imaging research. A new curriculum, the doctoral foundation, will provide 18 months of vertical integration of the core didactic elements of biomedicine and basic science education in biomedical imaging through 4 components, two of them Foundational, followed by Integrative and Professional components. In the first, Foundations in Biomedical Science (2 courses), students will participate in modified modules 1 and 2 of the medical student curriculum that teaches the Core Principles of Medicine (including Gross Anatomy) and a 12-month sequence of organ systems medicine, Integrative Systems and Diseases. This will be complemented by 4 new courses in Foundations of Image Science: Molecular Imaging, Biomedical Image Analysis, Fundamental Techniques of Imaging, and Mathematics of Medical Imaging &Measurements. The third component is an Integrative Module: Foundations of Radiology and a Biomedical Image Sciences Seminar course. The fourth component is Professional Training: Responsible Conduct of Research, Teaching Practicum, Patient-Oriented Research Training, Research 'Survival'rough the laboratories of the participating faculty. To ensure that the thesis research is directed to translational medicine through the solution of discrete clinical problems, trainees will be co-advised by members f the clinical and basic science faculty.
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