The Cecil G Sheps Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill requests a competing renewal for our pre and post-doctoral interdisciplinary training program in health services research for the years 2013-18. Predoctoral trainees will be supported by the program for two years, and will have already completed their coursework. They will be drawn from multiple disciplines including: health policy, epidemiology, health behavior, economics, pharmacy, allied health and sociology. Post-doctoral trainees will work with a mentor to develop and complete research related to the delivery of health services in the currently changing health care system. While some post-doctoral trainees may have had PhD level training, others will be MD, PharmD, or DDS clinicians who complete a master's degree in public health during the fellowship. Many trainees will collaborate with investigators at the Sheps Center on projects funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and others. All trainees participate in a weekly, two-hour interdisciplinary seminar during which work in progress sessions monitor their development, as well as participate in discussions of methods issues in health services and patient-centered outcomes research, as well as career development activities. Mentoring in the fellowship is provided by an interdisciplinary faculty, led by the program director, Tim Carey MD MPH, director of the Sheps Center and an internist and health services research. He will be assisted by Kathleen Thomas PhD (mental health services research), Mark Holmes PhD (health policy and economics), Barbara Mark RN PhD (nursing and care quality), Betsy Sleath PhD (Pharmaceutical Policy), Til Sturmer MD PhD (Epidemiology) and Morris Weinberger PhD (Sociology and Health Policy). Fellows will also have access to the facilities and resources of the Sheps Center for Health Services Research, a pan-university center currently conducting over 60 projects with an annual budget of over $18M per year, as well as the broader resources of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We are requesting funding for 6 pre-and 4 post-doctoral fellows per year. All trainees receive training in the responsible conduct of research specific to health services research. We make particular efforts to attract and train minority trainees. Trainees generally go on to careers in academic research, state and local government and the private sector.
The US health care system is rapidly transforming in response to social, economic and policy changes. Skilled researchers are needed to assist in these changes so as to maximize the quality and efficiency of clinical care, and to address current disparities in health and health care. We propose to train PhD and clinical investigators in the methods of health services research toward those goals.
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