Training in Critical Care Health Policy Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests funding for five years to support a new postdoctoral training program in critical care health policy research (CCHPR). The overall goal of this program is to develop skilled investigators trained to conduct health services research and capable of academic careers as independent researchers improving the quality, safety, efficiency, and equity of critical care medicine. All trainees supported by this fellowship enroll in the Masters of Science in Health Policy Research (MSHP) degree program-offered by Penn's School of Medicine and its Wharton School. Trainees receive an intensive, structured program of mentoring, didactic research training, and experiential research over two years. The program includes core didactic courses in health economics, health policy, qualitative/quantitative data collection, and statistics; a required course in the epidemiology of acute care; elective courses in advanced epidemiology or biostatistics, advanced health care economics, health care policy, statistics, survey design and measurement, and social policy, social environment, and demography; intensive mentoring in critical care health services research by experts in the field; participation in multidisciplinary research seminars; instruction in the responsible conduct of research and regulatory affairs; and the development and completion of a clinical research project in critical care medicine under close supervision of a multidisciplinary mentoring team. The program is designed for postdoctoral physician fellows with clinical experience in adult and pediatric critical care. The definition of critical care encompasses care for adults and children with severe acute medical problems, trauma and post-surgical care in intensive care units, and coronary care units or emergency departments. The program emphasizes research on policy-relevant issues in critical care outcomes, financing, delivery, and management, often in contexts that are collaborative and interdisciplinary. Program participants will gain the skills necessary to combine their clinical expertise with their research training in order to ask and answer important questions about how critical care is and ought to be organized, financed, managed, and delivered. RELEVANCE (See instructions): The morbidity, mortality and costs attributable to critical illness are enormous. This postdoctoral program integrates clinical experience, health services research training, and policy analysis for physicians trained in critical care medicine. These trainees will form a cadre of physician leaders capable of addressing critical care issues at the bedside, across populations, and alongside policymakers.