Greater Boston Medical Student Training in Aging Research

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Project Abstract The Greater Boston MSTAR Program aims to provide a short-term aging research and mentoring experience to medical students early in their career. Students will become educated and enthusiastic about the career opportunities in academic, clinical, and research geriatric medicine. The Program has operated continuously since 1989 and provided short term research training experiences to over 230 medical students. Both the Program Director and Co-Director have five years of experience in this role and have been involved with teaching and mentoring Boston MSTAR students for over a decade. The Program Director will report to the Mentor Advisory Council for program oversite, increasing the pool of high-quality mentors, and continued efforts on recruiting minority Scholars from Harvard, the University of Mississippi/Jackson Heart Study, Boston University Medical Center, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Brown University School of Medicine. We currently have over 40 mentors with more than 200 funded research projects whose combined direct costs for the current year total over $60 million. The heart of the Boston MSTAR Program will be the 8 to12-week mentored aging research project experience for 11 scholars: 7 from medical schools across the country, and one each from the University of Mississippi, University of Massachusetts, Boston University Medical Center, and Brown University. All students will receive training in protection of human subjects, aging research methodology, and clinical geriatrics. Students will present their research in an oral presentation and will be strongly encouraged to present their work at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society. The program will track students through their medical training and career decisions. By developing a strong relationship with the students, the scholar tracking will be a continuation of the mentoring experience and a forum to increase scholar interest in aging research. The program’s past successes are a foreshadowing of its future potential. Over the past grant cycle, we have tripled the number of applicants, allowing us to select students with a genuine interest in aging research. Over two-thirds of our students present at a scientific meeting 20% publish a scientific paper from their 8-12 week mentored research experience. Long term, under the T35 mechanism, 24% of matriculated students have pursued additional research training or a career in geriatrics. As a result, the Greater Boston MSTAR Program seeks to continue the tradition of training medical students in aging research.