Clinical Research and Mentoring in Infectious Disease

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposal is to provide salary support for Kent Sepkowitz, MD, in his career development activities in the areas of patient oriented research and mentoring young infectious disease faculty and fellows. Dr. Sepkowitz is Head, Clinical Infectious Disease Section, and in this capacity supervises all infectious disease clinical research projects at MSKCC. He also is the Program Director for the infectious disease fellowship training program and oversees the career development of all infectious disease fellows. Dr. Sepkowitz's academic focus is infection control and occupational infections in health care workers. The award will allow Dr. Sepkowitz to further develop his Prevention Epicenter program, established by CDC grant support in 1998 and funded through 2006. Four activities are described in this grant, including two Prevention Epicenter projects: examination of the molecular epidemiology of Clostridium difficile and novel approaches to surgical site surveillance. In addition to Prevention Epicenter initiatives, the award will allow additional development of a CDC-funded program in health care worker safety (NaSH) examining the effect of safer needles on the rates and types of needlestick injuries. The final activity is enhanced clinical trials, which focus on new therapies for the prevention and treatment of opportunistic fungal and viral infections in cancer patients. Dr. Sepkowitz has an established record of collaborating productively with junior faculty, fellows, and residents. The ID Service has recently added five junior faculty members, each responsible for a specific institutional program. Both the new junior faculty and the ID fellows will be deeply involved in the four research projects described in this application. Resources provided by this award will allow Dr. Sepkowitz to cut back on clinical and administrative responsibilities and provide specific, scheduled time to mentor junior faculty and fellows, to assure successful development of their careers. In addition, it will allow him to devote more time to the specific projects, to the infection control program, and development of the MSKCC Prevention Epicenter. The combination of the strong academic tradition and milieu of MSKCC, the established, federally-funded program in infection control (Prevention Epicenter), and the applicant's established record of working productively with young physicians will produce a generation of academic infectious disease physicians with expertise in clinical investigation.