Cedars-Sinai Clinical Scholars Program

The Cedars-Sinai Clinical Scholars Program will be launched on August 1, 2008. 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.
  • Funding for up to one year of full-time research.
  • Required plan for a K award 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

General

  1. The curriculum is designed to allow busy clinicians to participate with minimal disruption of their duties.
  2. Teaching sessions will be held from 4-5:30pm twice weekly (Tuesdays and Thursdays) in the Davis Building, Classroom 1011.
  3. Special Events will include a bi-monthly gathering of all clinical scholars for a lecture by a distinguished clinical scientist, two brief research-in-progress seminars by clinical scholars, followed by a dinner.
  4. Basic Science Liaison. Clinical scholars will have an assigned basic science mentor. Attendance at the laboratory meetings of the mentor is required to understand better the language of science and to interact with scientists in a related discipline. Attendance at a minimum of 12 meetings per year is required.
  5. Curriculum Modules. There will be four, 10-week modules per year. The 4 modules will run in an overlapping fashion. This approach ensures scholars to have a broad view of clinical research throughout the didactic experience.
  6. 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 within an assigned period of time.
  7. Biostatistics. This course will include approximately 15 teaching sessions spread over the first year and will be shared with the Graduate program.

Module 1: Disciplines Relevant to Clinical Research

  1. Introduction to the Program: Choosing a research area
  2. Molecular and genetic epidemiology
  3. Clinical pharmacology
  4. Drug development
  5. Bioinformatics
  6. Economic analysis in clinical research

Module 2: Clinical Research Conduct

  1. Ethical principles in clinical research
  2. Legal issues in clinical research
  3. Scientific conduct
  4. IRB
  5. IACUC
  6. Interacting with the public and the media
  7. Quality control
  8. Data management
  9. Safety

Module 3: Design of Clinical Research Studies

  1. Testing a hypothesis; asking a good question
  2. Design of epidemiologic studies
  3. Design of clinical trials
  4. Randomization, sample size, power, subgroup analysis
  5. Meta-analysis and use of secondary data
  6. Questionnaire design and psychometrics, case report forms
  7. Measures
  8. Survival analysis
  9. Designing a protocol budget

Module 4: Support Systems in Clinical Research

  1. Who to turn to for career guidance: management of personal time
  2. How the NIH works, how study section think, and funding opportunities
  3. Information systems: how to use them to best advantage
  4. Networking, collaborations, accessing core facilities
  5. Managing a laboratory
  6. Special requirements of research or human subjects using a GCRC
  7. Budgeting for a study
  8. Moving from bench to bedside and bedside to bench
  9. Technology transfer
  10. Balancing multiple career goals