MSM is a nationally recognized, historically black institution established to recruit and train minority and other students as physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals committed to the primary health care needs of the underserved. In this competitive renewal application, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) proposes to continue efforts to enhance its institutional infrastructure and the capability of individual faculty members to conduct health services research aimed at improving the quality of health services for African Americans and vulnerable populations and eliminating racial/ethnic health care disparities. While maintaining its long-term collaborative partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), MSM through this initiative will more effectively integrate the resources of its varied research centers, training programs, and academic departments to provide postdoctoral didactic educational, experiential, and mentored research training and biostatistics and data management support to MSM clinical and other junior faculty members to enhance their abilities for health services research as independent investigators. Graduate students and medical residents will be exposed to health services research as a career option through participation in ongoing research and development of thesis research projects and other projects for their culminating experiences. Faculty fellows, identified through academic departments, research centers, and other training programs, will be supported for training for up to two years, depending on their research developmental needs of individual research projects and prerequisite training and experience. All faculty fellows, graduate students, and medical residents will receive didactic training through methods seminars and workshops, including grant-writing and manuscript preparation workshops, and will participate in routine one-on-one consultations with mentors, bimonthly meetings, monthly journal club discussions, as well as participate in all aspects of ongoing research projects. The general philosophy of this postdoctoral training program is that minority junior faculty and students will learn by doing, given a supportive, nurturing environment of experienced mentors and technical support. Each faculty fellow will be required to prepare (1) a PHS-398 research application to be submitted for external funding, and (2) a manuscript for peer-reviewed journal publication, each to include student participation and for review by mentors and advisors. This program will enhance the research skills and experience of at least 10 junior faculty members over the five-year period, resulting in a stronger MSM research faculty, an increased pool of minority health services researchers, an expanded health services research program, and enhanced research productivity of extramural research, peer-reviewed publications, and national leadership in eliminating health disparities.

R24HS011617

2001-09-01

2010-06-30