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Concurrent Advanced Degree/Certificate
Programs
The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center is one of the top research
centers in the United States. Through the efforts of
Drs. Charles Y.C. Pak and Perrie M. Adams, UT
Southwestern was one of the first institutions in the US
to recognize the need for training physicians in the
principles and practice of clinical research. UT
Southwestern organized the nation's first "Symposium on
Techniques of Patient-Oriented Research" in 1992, which
was co-sponsored by the NIH's General Clinical
Research Centers (GCRC) Program and was attended by
clinical researchers nationwide.
Various programs exist to
support clinical research training. Options include (1)
Completion of a Certificate program in Patient Oriented
Research, (2) Clinical Scholars Program which results in
a Masters of Science, (3) Masters of Public Health, (4)
and a certificate program in Public Health
Fellows in Toxicology may
participate in these programs. Some aspects and
expectations within the Fellowship program may be
modified if a Fellow is participating in one of these
other advanced degree/certificate programs. Of the
fellows who have been in our toxicology program, two
have completed their Masters of Public Health and one
completed the Certificate Program in Patient Oriented
Research.
More
information on these programs and on the centers that
support them follows.
THE
SUPPORTING CENTERS
The
Center for Biostatistics and Clinical Science is a
department-level initiative that functions as an
academic, educational, and cultural home for clinical
investigators across all departments and disciplines at
UT Southwestern.
The
mission of the Center is to accelerate and enhance the
training and career development of clinical
investigators, promote the conduct of high-quality
patient-oriented research, develop effective mechanisms
to facilitate translational research, and provide a
formal mechanism of institutional recognition for
clinical scientists. To achieve these goals, the Center
has the authority to grant faculty appointments and to
integrate, coordinate, and expand core training
activities in clinical research across all departments
and core elements of the clinical research
infrastructure for the benefit of its trainees, faculty,
and the entire institution.
The
structure and function of the Center for Biostatistics
and Clinical Science is similar to that of other
interdepartmental multidisciplinary centers focused on
individual diseases; however, the goals of the Center
are broad-based and encompass all clinical research
throughout UT Southwestern.
The
General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) is a National
Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported
multidisciplinary research facility funded through The
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at
Dallas. The primary mission of our GCRC is to
provide the clinical research infrastructure to
investigators who receive their primary research funding
from other federal components.
Resources include an 11 bed, primarily adult, research
inpatient unit located on the seventh floor of the
Parkland Memorial Hospital campus of the Parkland Health
and Hospital System of the Dallas County Hospital
District. The 2200 sq. ft. research outpatient clinic,
providing approximately 6,000 visits/year, is located on
the sixth floor of the Charles Cameron Sprague Clinical
Science building of the UT Southwestern campus. Both the
inpatient and outpatient units are staffed by
experienced research nurses. GCRC resources also include
a Bionutrition Research Core with a full-time Research
Dietitian, a Core Laboratory providing routine urine and
serum chemistries, an Informatics Core providing graphic
needs and programming support, a Statistical Core
providing services including study design, statistical
analysis and manuscript preparation and a Human
Subjects Protection Core providing oversight and
direction in the protection of human subjects
participating in research.
The GCRC
provides resources and hospitalization in a controlled
environment for research patients at no charge for
investigator-designed and initiated studies. However, it
offers modest support for research related ancillary
costs and is not able to cover normal volunteer costs,
cost for patient travel expenses or sophisticated tests
such as radio immunoassays. Its research nursing staff
is intimately familiar with starting and maintaining
time-oriented research procedures ranging from the
simple to complex.
The
overall goal of the GCRC is to provide an optimal
setting for clinical investigation which will lead to
improved understanding of the disease process, allow
better methods of diagnosis and treatment, foster
interdisciplinary collaboration, and offer training in
clinical investigation. The GCRC is available to UT
Southwestern faculty physicians, residents, and fellows
who wish to perform clinical research that requires a
controlled environment for their investigations.
THE PROGRAMS
The GCRC
has a highly successful Training
Curriculum in Patient-Oriented Research, which
trains clinical scientists to become independent
investigators. Led by Dr. Robert Toto, this program is
currently supported by an NIH K30 Award and provides
both training and direct experience in the conduct of
clinical research. The program begins with the
annual Symposium on the Techniques of Patient-Oriented
Research (which includes protocol design and
development, informed consent, grant writing and
manuscript preparation), followed by didactic courses in
biostatistics and epidemiology, clinical pharmacology,
molecular biological and genetic principles and methods,
and ethics. Trainees then complete a research
apprenticeship with an assigned mentor in his/her field
of interest. The Training Program in Patient-Oriented
Research currently provides the core curriculum for: (1)
medical students; (2) post-doctoral fellows and junior
faculty enrolled in the K30 Program; and (3)
post-doctoral clinical research fellows supported by
training grants.
It is
very feasible for toxicology fellows to participate in
this program. Because the program is Federally funded,
there are no fees for the coursework if you are accepted
into the program. If you are accepted into the program,
you have free access to most of the resources at the
GCRC. This includes free statistical consultation and
support. One Toxicology Fellow has participated and
completed the POR program. At the time of the
application to the program, a prospective trainee must
have a proposed, prospective research project. This
project would be acted on during the POR program. The
coursework for the POR program overlaps with the
coursework required for the Masters programs in Clinical
Science and in Public Health.
Completion of the POR program does NOT result in a
degree. It does result in obtaining a Certificate that
reflects the training completed. This certificate is
significant because training was provided through a K30
Federal grant and this will assist Certificate holders
in future Federal Grant applications.
(2)
Masters Program in Clinical Science (Clinical Scholars
Program)
The
Center has developed a Master's degree program in
Clinical Science, which focuses on training the next
generation of leaders in clinical investigation. The
program requires 75% effort for at least 3 years. During
the first year, candidates will take didactic courses in
a comprehensive curriculum, which has been designed to
fulfill the needs of the clinical investigator. The
curriculum will not only offer the components of a
conventional training program that focuses on public
health disciplines (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology,
and health services research), but will also provide
courses important to: (1) patient-oriented research
(e.g., critical thinking,
Clinical Research Design & Analysis, clinical
pharmacology, ethics); (2) translational research (e.g.,
molecular and genetic principles and methods); and (3)
leadership, management and career development (e.g.,
presentation skills, grant writing).
During the second and subsequent years, candidates will
participate in an in-depth, practical,
multidisciplinary, collaborative training experience in
the planning, execution, and analysis of clinical
research, initially through an apprenticeship in an
ongoing research project and subsequently by the conduct
of an independent research project. Successful
candidates will be expected to rapidly move to
independent research careers in the context of
an appropriate faculty appointment.
This
program would be difficult to do while doing a
toxicology fellowship. However, many of the components
of the Patient Oriented Research Program noted above are
also a part of this master’s program. One could
consider completing the Masters Program in Clinical
Science after completing the Toxicology Fellowship.
(3)
Masters in Public Health
The Master of Public
Health (M.P.H.) degree is the basic professional degree
in the field of Public Health. It is required for many
supervisory and managerial positions in public health
and is recommended for many others. The program is
actually sponsored by the University of Texas at
Houston’s School of Public Health. Students are admitted
to the Dallas Regional Campus. This academic program is
carried out in partnership with The University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Classes are held on
the UT Southwestern Campus in the Allied Health Sciences
Building. The program also offers interactive video
(ITV) courses that are broadcast to and from the main
campus in Houston and the other regional campuses:
Brownsville, El Paso, and San Antonio. The program takes
advantage of the outstanding educational and research
activities that are characteristic of the UT Health
Science Center at Houston and UT Southwestern campuses.
Members of the Dallas public health community also
provide countless hours as guest lecturers, consultants,
and mentors.
Two Toxicology
Fellows have completed this Master’s program.
(4)
SPH Certificate Program in Public Health
The University of
Texas School of Public Health offers a graduate
Certificate in Public Health, a 16 hour program of study
consisting of five courses covering the core disciplines
of public health. Certificate and MPH students will
participate in these classes together. Classes will be
offered at the five UTSPH campuses, at the UTSPH
Regional Office in Austin TX, and as online courses.
While no Toxicology Fellows have taken just a few
courses in Public Health, this is certainly available
for a nominal fee.
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