Training Medical Students in NIDDK Research

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Abstract Research during the early years of medical education trains medical students in quantitative reasoning, and scientific literacy as well as expose them to mentors who have devoted their careers to investigation. It thus sharpens their understanding of the processes by which the practice of medicine develops and improves as well as stimulating their interests in research careers. The curriculum at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University now requires that all medical students produce a “Scholarly Effort” before graduation expanding our pool of applicants. Research in basic and clinical aspects of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Obesity, Kidney, Urology and Digestive Diseases is particularly strong at our medical school with 60 investigators having current RO1 grants. Over the past 4 years, 70 of our students applied each year to enter the T35 training program. While we had initially asked for an annual support of 12 students, there were many more qualified applicants and through re-budgeting of our non-training funds we were able to fund 51 students working in these areas (~13/year). The students attended weekly seminars in important topics including career development and the responsible conduct of research. In addition, we hosted a weekly journal club specific for NIDDK trainees where mentors discussed their current research using their publications in high impact journals. We acted as a regional center for medical student research in NIDDK funded fields recruiting 5 additional students who worked with our mentors. The outcomes have exceeded our expectations, since its inception in 2012, 14 of our students over this short period decided to dedicate an additional year of research to their projects; 39 of them published 90 peer-reviewed papers, 18 as first authors, and most presented their work at local, national or international meetings. The Program will be supervised by a recruitment and admission committee that will choose the students from the applicant pool, a committee that follows their progress and an internal advisory committee that helps the PI/PD in running the program. Finally, a career development committee will aid the students in making important career decision as they progress through medical school as well as evaluate the program. We are starting a new collaboration with the City University of New York where the majority of medical students are from under-represented minorities. We hope this new effort will provide a “pipeline” of such students into our program.