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: Sept 2008-January 2009

ISSUES IN CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH BIOSTATISTICS
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
Bioinformatics and information system for clinical research Biostatistics - Binary outcomes - introduction to logistic regression and quantal response
Good Clinical Practices (GCP) Biostatistics - Statistical reporting in scientific papers - wrap up & review
Clinical Trial Management
FDA and ICH Regulations for Drugs and Devices

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 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 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 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 within an assigned period of time.