Training in Health Services Research for Vulnerable Populations

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ABSTRACT Since 2013, our AHRQ T32 program has successfully recruited diverse fellows and prepared them for health services research careers. We have trained 24 researchers, resulting in 35 presentations and 26 publications. Five of our trainees are still engaged in the training program and are on track to meet all our stated objectives; of the nineteen graduates, seven (six postdoctoral and one predoctoral who completed his PhD) have appointments at academic institutions and two are completing their PhDs at the BUSPH. This competitive renewal builds on our successful program in several important ways. We are expanding the diversity in content by including trainees and mentors from the Department of Surgery. We are also adding additional didactic and training and experiential opportunities and social determinants of health and health equity. Our interdisciplinary predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowship aims to produce Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery and Public Health researchers who will lead efforts to improve health care delivery for underserved patients. The four objectives of our program are to: (1) Recruit and retain high-quality, diverse candidates interested in research careers focused on improving health care quality, access, and delivery for underserved patients; (2) Provide predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows with comprehensive research training; (3) Produce graduates who will conduct research on health care quality, delivery, and health outcomes for low-income populations and whose research translates to systems change; and (4) Evaluate our program for continuous improvement. The program is led by Dr. Marc LaRochelle, an experienced researcher and mentor, and Co-Directed by an interdisciplinary team of senior scientists. We have established four pedagogical structures essential to training research fellows: (1) Intensive mentoring; (2) Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) courses culminating in a Master’s in Population Health for postdoctoral fellows and a PhD for predoctoral fellows; (3) Interdisciplinary academic seminars; and (4) Supervised conduct of at least two research projects. Predoctoral training includes the first 3 didactic years of the PhD program. Postdoctoral training is 2 years. Each year, we will train 3 predoctoral and 3 postdoctoral fellows. Fellows will become health service researchers focused on health care quality, delivery, and outcomes for low-income populations. We track graduates 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation (goal: >85% enter research careers focused on improving healthcare quality; >70% remain in health services research after 3 years; >50% lead efforts to implement new care models and have >1 funded research within 5 years).