Surgical Scientist Training Grant in Health Services and Translational Research

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Abstract: The enduring goal of this T32 application is to support the continued training of surgical residents to become consequential physician-scientists in Health Services and Translational Research. In our well-funded laboratories, the translational research training of surgical scientists will focus on the fields of trauma, burn, wound healing, and regenerative medicine while the health services research training will be targeted in the critical discipline of clinical outcomes investigation in order to educate surgeons and to promote evidenced-based medicine. The former emphasizes translating scientific discoveries from the research bench to the patient’s bedside, whereas the latter centers on determining the efficacy of therapeutic interventions to improve clinical outcomes. The purpose of the health services research portion of the training grant is for young surgeons to integrate clinical experience with training in program development and research methods. The purpose of the translational scientific portion of the training grant is to provide formal instruction on laboratory research project design and sound research methods of hypothesis-driven investigation to push the boundaries of surgical innovation. The curriculum is designed to encourage the participants of the program to become future academic surgical investigators who will apply this training to find solutions to the many challenges posed by the U.S. healthcare system. The program will foster a cadre of well- prepared surgical scientist trainees to ease their transition into academics. Future academic surgical investigators will benefit from greater knowledge in both important areas as they will be in the unique position to initiate research that bridges clinical and basic experimentation while also evaluating the effectiveness of their treatments. Our past trainees have successfully launched careers in academics and received PhDs using our T-32 grant training as a career defining experience. This newly structured organization that was initiated as an innovative iteration of this training grant in our last grant cycle has demonstrated great success over the past 5 years. Building upon the distinguished achievements of the longstanding history of our T-32 training program at this institution, this novel programmatic adaptation is particularly well suited toward training the academic surgeons of the 21st century.