Career Advancement for Research in Health Equity

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The overarching mission of this T37 application, Career Advancement for Research in Health Equity (CARE), is to increase the pool and diversity of scientists who are committed to conducting patient-oriented research that improves not only the quality and efficiency of healthcare but also addresses the well-documented national and global inequalities in healthcare access, utilization, and outcomes. In addition to the well-documented racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare in the US, there are growing global disparities in the epidemic of non- communicable diseases in low and middle- income countries. Expanding the diversity and number of well- trained physicians and scientists working across disciplines is essential to better understand and address the impact of biology, social determinants, and other barriers to health equity nationally and globally. However, increasing the number of underrepresented minority (URM) trainees committed to careers in biomedical sciences remains a significant challenge. The proposed training program addresses a critical deficiency faced by many URM scholars committed to careers in health equity and/or global health. The program will consist of 5 interrelated components: (1) an intensive 2-month summer didactic session on healthcare/scientific research fundamentals; (2) a weekly health equity seminar series; (3) a year-long, mentored research experience; (4) opportunities for trainees pursuing global health careers to train at our NIH-funded global health research sites in Haiti, Brazil, Tanzania, and Ghana; and (5) a competitive pilot funding program to support trainee- initiated research projects aimed at addressing health disparities and/or global health issues. We propose to recruit 10 trainees (total of 50 trainees over five years) to participate in a 1 year program personalized to meet the specific needs of trainees with diverse backgrounds. Although the program will consider trainees at any stage of the academic healthcare training continuum (from medical student, to resident, to fellowship/post- doc), whenever feasible we will seek out those at the post-doctoral/medical fellow level to achieve the long- term goal of increasing the number of URM who achieve faculty positions at our institution and nationally and pursue research to improve health equity and global health. The immediate objectives of this program are to: 1) Develop and implement successful strategies to identify and recruit talented URM pre- and post-doctoral trainees across the health sciences who are committed to careers in health equity or global health research; 2) Provide trainees experience in the conduct of multidisciplinary research in health disparities and global health with seasoned mentors embedded in major academic institutions and global health research sites; and 3)Engage URM trainees in our intensive summer research training session that leverages both formal degree and non-degree institutional programs and builds methodological skills in scientific research. In summary, successful completion of this program will lead to a significant increase in diversity in academic healthcare– a goal consistent with NIH's commitment to diversify the nation's scientific workforce.