Cedars-Sinai Clinical Scholars Program

This innovative program will provide funding, career guidance, education and skill acquisition for aspiring clinical scientists working at the Medical Center.

Essential Elements of the Program

  • The program is directed towards residents (in the later years of their training), fellows, and young faculty with aspirations to become clinical scientists.
  • All training programs and clinical departments are eligible to nominate candidates for competitive admission.
  • Program duration of 2 years: Year 1: part-time curriculum in translational medicine and clinical research; Year 2: full-time research under the supervision of an experienced mentor. In special cases, admission for a one year program, which combines fulltime research with participation in the curriculum, may be considered.
  • Potential funding for up to one year of full-time research for those judged to be most competitive for future funding.
  • Required plan for a K award or other grant from NIH to be tabled during the first year with application for funding to be awarded during research year.

Outcome Criteria

  1. The principal criterion for a successful outcome is the production of a successful clinical scientist who will have an impact on a field of clinical science upon graduating from the program.
  2. The essential requirement for defining a successful outcome will be a successful application for peer-reviewed research support, particularly a K-series grant from NIH.
  3. Competitiveness in the job market would also be a goal of the program. This would be assessed by the following:
    1. Research publications
    2. Grant support
    3. Likelihood of future grant support based upon current work
    4. Presentation and communication skills
    5. Breadth of scientific understanding
    6. Entrepreneurial approach
  4. Specific personal qualities and skills will be developed while in the program:
    1. Dedication to solving a scientific problem
    2. Ability to formulate a hypothesis or relevant research question
    3. Ability to present information to others
    4. Ability to review basic and clinical research critically
    5. Appreciation of the relevance of a broad range of scientific disciplines

Ongoing Career Development at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Clinical scholars who excel will be viewed as potential faculty recruits. Appropriate discussions will be initiated with such individuals to ascertain whether their career goals can be served by a faculty appointment at Cedars-Sinai, including considerations of start-up support for an independent research career.

Core Curriculum

ISSUES IN CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH BIOSTATISTICS/SPECIAL TOPICS
Design of epidemiologic studies Biostatistics - Confounding, bias, study design
Testing a hypothsis; asking a good question Biostatistics - (finish study design) - Descriptive statistics for continuous data
Design of clinical trials Biostatistics - Descriptive statistics for binary and survival data
Measures and how they influence data analysis: Categorical measures Biostatistics - Elementary probability theory & distributions - Normal distribution
Measures and how they influence data analysis: Continuous measures Biostatistics - Central limit theorem & confidence intervals
Randomization, sample size and power Biostatistics - Hypothesis testing & equivalence testing
Data collection, recording, storage and management Biostatistics - Power, sample size, incomplete (missing) data
Questionnaire design and psychometrics Biostatistics - Correlation, bivariate and multiple regression - an introduction
Data and Safety Monitoring Biostatistics - Comparing means - t tests and analysis of variance
Bioinformatics and information system for clinical research Biostatistics - Binary outcomes - comparing proportions - chi square tests
Good Clinical Practices (GCP) Biostatistics - Statistical reporting in scientific papers - wrap up & review
Clinical Trial Management
FDA and ICH Regulations for Drugs and Devices
Introduction to Grantsmanship Intro to Bayesian statistics
How the NIH review process works Biostatistics 'consulting'
Grant writing - putting together a proposal
Budgeting for your study Animal Imaging Technologies
Surviving and thriving in the grants game - Real life stories Microscopy & Image Analysis
Non-NIH sources: Foundations, pharmaceutical and industrial support for research Microarray Technology & Analysis
Scientific writing and publishing From a Basic Discovery to Clinical Trial
Networking and collaborations in Science Stem Cells
Scientific conduct Stem Cells Applications and the Heart
Ethics in Human Subjects research
'Mock' IRB
Issues in Animal Research
Managing a laboratory/research team
Interacting with the public and the media
Entrepeneurship in Science
Drug Discovery
Pharmaceutical clinical trials
Gene Therapy
Stem Cell Applications and the Liver

General

  1. The curriculum is designed to allow busy clinicians to participate with minimal disruption of their duties. Some of the sessions are optional.
  2. Teaching sessions will be held from 5-6:30 twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) in the Davis Building, Classroom 1004; full participation is expected. These classes are taken with the Graduate students. Tuesday Class - "Issues in Clinical & Translational Research" Thursday Class - "Biostatistics"
  3. Special Events will include gatherings of all clinical scholars for lectures by distinguished clinical scientists, brief research-in-progress seminars by clinical scholars, and other special seminars..
  4. Basic Science Liaison. Clinical scholars will have an assigned basic science mentor where it is deemed to be useful. Attendance at the laboratory meetings of the mentor would allow the scholar to understand better the language of science and to interact with scientists in a related discipline.
  5. Grant Writing Workshops. These will be conducted as one-to-one encounters with a member of the Research Grant Development Team. The goal is to generate a real application for peer-reviewed funding within an assigned period of time.

Program Director:
Dr. Leon G. Fine
Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine
Chair, Cedars-Sinai Department of Biomedical Sciences
Director of Graduate Research Education
Phone: (310) 423-6457
Email: leon.fine@cshs.org

Enquiries:
Emma Yates Casler
Program Coordinator
Phone: (310) 423-8294
Email: emma.yatescasler@cshs.org