Cancer Epidemiology Education in Special Populations

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is the second and final revised application for this program. The objective of this application is to develop an educational program to motivate and educate epidemiology MPH students to pursue careers in cancer epidemiology research in special populations. This will be a new curriculum-driven program that includes new elective courses, special studies, and short- term research-oriented field experiences in minority populations in the U.S. or foreign populations in other countries. The program will recruit at least 50 MPH students who intend to have careers in cancer epidemiology and with interest in conducting research in U.S. minorities and/or international settings. There are few cancer epidemiologists who have the skills and experience to implement studies in minority settings, including the studies of migrant populations. We have the interest and capacity among our faculty and field collaborators to provide course instruction in the new curriculum and expert field mentorship to graduate students in the proposed program. Unfortunately, up until now, there has been limited emphasis and opportunities for education and field research in international and ethnically diverse populations. This proposed program will define cancer as an important educational and research discipline in minority and international settings. It will attract students from the University of Michigan and other U.S. universities who are interested in cancer epidemiology in minority and international populations. Annually, our department accepts 75 new MPH students. All MPH students are required to have summer internship projects which are the basis for their theses. Approximately 40 % of these students are involved in foreign or ethnically diverse projects, but 95% of the projects are focused on infectious diseases not related to cancer. Few of our students choose cancer topics for their internships because support funding for cancer is not available as it is for other topics. For example, none of our students did a summer internship on cancer last year because funding was only available for infectious disease training through other agencies. The educational program before and after the internships will equip the students to pursue careers in cancer research. Evaluation of students, mentors, curriculum, and field experience will be reviewed continuously and annual evaluation reports will be drafted by the Education Committee and external advisors. Strategies developed and lessons learned through this program should have widespread applicability to other U.S. public health and biomedical cancer education programs. We plan to disseminate the program through partnerships with U.S.-based epidemiology programs that have the potential and interest in adopting our program. We plan dissemination workshops to implement these partnerships.