The Wake Forest School of Medicine Training in Research Affecting Child-Health (TRAC) Program

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Despite enormous growth in research related to child health and development, there is a significant lag in corresponding growth of this workforce, especially for underrepresented individuals. There remains a dearth of trainees entering into and remaining in these careers. Many pediatricians have limited exposure to research during their training. Those who have received formal research training—ranging from short-term “boot camps” to master’s programs—or who work in a laboratory often are taught how to perform certain research skills (e.g., clinical study design) but do not know how to develop a rigorous research question. Overly specialized research training and lack of funding and resources limit the ability to adapt to a changing environment that is increasingly collaborative. Correspondingly, child health research funding has lagged and is disproportionate to funding for adult-focused research; only 10% of the NIH budget supports child health research (despite that 22% of the US population are children). Thus, there is a need to train individuals in a broad array of pediatric-specific research skills across diverse domains of child health and development in order to optimize their match quality (i.e., aligning their career choice with who they are and their skills and interests) to promote their long-term success. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM) Training in Research Affecting Child Health (TRAC) Program will provide a novel child health and development research training opportunity across the spectrum of educational levels (undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, residents, and fellows). TRAC will foster acquisition of lasting child health-related research skills with an emphasis on independence and critical thinking. Modeled after a WFUSM Department of Pediatrics pilot program, and leveraging existing WFUSM training programs, TRAC will support novel, horizontal peer-to-peer mentorship through an immersive eight-week pediatric-specific skills course over the summer combined with the development and implementation of collaborative research projects with guidance from faculty mentors that will continue throughout the following academic year so participants can see their project to completion. This will culminate in abstract submissions to the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting the following spring and submission of a first-authored manuscript. This approach will provide an important sense of ownership and accomplishment to further empower the participants and generate excitement to enter the field of child health and development. TRAC will therefore take advantage of a broad educational focus, unique mentorship, and novel participant empowerment to optimize match quality in order to help participants identify and develop their strengths and interests to promote lasting interest in research related to child health and development and enhance the diversity of the research workforce involved in NICHD mission-focused research.