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Academic Research Track:
Program Overview
The Academic Research Track (ART) will provide selected students, strongly motivated to pursue an academic career in medicine that encompasses research, with a broad and deep exposure to basic, clinical, educational or translational research, involving both didactic and mentored research experiences through an enriched medical school curriculum.
The ART is a newly formed program offering medical students an opportunity to obtain research training and to pursue investigation on a topic of interest in greater depth. The class entering in 2005 was the first to have the opportunity to take this course of study, which will be implemented over the following years. We anticipate that 10-20 students per year will enter the ART. This five-year curriculum will provide students with a strong background in medically-oriented research, with the goal of engendering a long-standing interest in academic medicine. The ART was created in response to critical shortages of academic physicians. As well, academic careers offer unparalleled intellectual challenges, career flexibility, and job satisfaction. We expect the ART will attract many of our best students, and will train the future leaders of our fields.
- The first two years of the curriculum occur in parallel with the Double Helix curriculum. Introductory seminars for first year students, covering five areas of medical research, will occur within the Mastering Medical Information Course. Thereafter, seminars throughout the first two yearswill encompass various aspects of medical research, organized into modules. The modules are: Research as a Human Enterprise (Being Mentored and Being a Mentor), Formulating a Research Question (Research Models and Conceptualization), Measurements and Analysis in Medical Research, Data Analysis and Presentation, and Finding the Money (Funding Opportunities and Strategies). The final module in year 2 will be a practicum, presentations by students of their upcoming research projects. Additional seminars will be scheduled for in-depth presentations of research, linked to the material being covered in the Double Helix curriculum. All students will take the Ethics course required of all Graduate students, and will be certified for Human Subjects research.
- During the summer after the first year, students in the ART will pursue a mentored research project in basic, clinical educational or translational ("bench to bedside" or "bedside to community") research. The program will provide a list of potential mentors, but students may also choose a mentor and topic independently. These projects will require approval from the ART Executive Committee.
- After the second year, students will take a year out, tuition-free, to pursue in depth a research project with their mentor. If affiliated with a research program that offers degrees, this experience may qualify the student to be eligible for a Master's degree in that field.
- In the final two years of the ART, students will pursue their clinical clerkships, and will finish up their research projects by writing a manuscript that will serve either as a submission for publication or will serve as the basis for a presentation at a meeting. Students will also return as speakers to ART students in the first two years, to report on their research. Additional meetings during these final years of training will consist of journal club or discussion, in workshop format, on topics such as planning an academic career, including continuing research career development during residencies.