PITTSBURGH PEDIATRIC RHEUMATOLOGY TRAINING GRANT

描述(由申请人提供)： 儿科风湿病是最新和最小的儿科亚科之一。该专业专注于儿童肌肉骨骼和自身免疫性疾病，其中最常见的是幼年类风湿性关节炎。在美国，为这一群体提供服务的儿童委员会认证的儿科风湿病医生不到200人。除了少数人之外，所有这些人都是不从事研究的临床医生。只有五个中心有三名或三名以上的教员；至少有60所医学院的教员中没有儿科风湿病专家。尽管人们普遍认为有必要培养更多的儿科风湿病专家，尤其是内科科学家，但据我们所知，目前只有一个由NIH资助的儿科风湿病培训项目。因此，很少有儿科风湿病医生有研究导师和学术榜样，他们缺乏进行尖端研究的技能。匹兹堡儿童医院的儿科风湿科拥有大量和持续的机构支持，其目标是创建一个全国儿科风湿病卓越中心，提供全面的、最先进的临床护理、教育计划和涉及临床、翻译和基础科学的竞争性研究。我们的中心使命之一是培养新一代学术儿科风湿病专家，他们可以作为内科科学家在该专业中发挥主导作用。我们打算通过在一个中心内提供培养这些人并确保他们成功所需的研究榜样、导师和丰富的环境来做到这一点。该方案力求在每一年的培训中培训2名研究员。虽然许多儿童风湿性疾病与成人的风湿性疾病不同，但两者以及其他自身免疫性疾病和涉及异常免疫反应的其他过程都有共同的病理生理途径。因此，我们的理念一直是追求多学科的方法。这一战略在过去一直是成功和富有成效的。拟议的培训计划旨在为学员提供与儿科和成人风湿科以及医学中心内更广泛的免疫学社区的研究人员互动的机会。已选定有外部资助、擅长指导受训人员且其研究分为四类：(1)儿童风湿病研究，(2)一般风湿性疾病(儿童和成人)研究，(3)自身免疫动物模型研究，以及(4)被认为与儿童风湿性疾病病理生理学相关的免疫生物学研究。许多教职员工都参与了不止一个类别的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pediatric Rheumatology is one of the newest and smallest of the pediatric subspecialties. The specialty focuses on musculoskeletal and autoimmune diseases of childhood, of which the most common is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Serving this population of children are fewer than 200 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the United States. All but a handful of these are clinicians who do not engage in research. There are only five centers with three or more faculty; at least 60 medical schools have no pediatric rheumatologist on their faculty. Although there is a well-recognized need to train more pediatric rheumatologists, especially physician scientists, there exists only one NIH-funded training program in pediatric rheumatology, to our knowledge. As a result, few pediatric rheumatologists have had research mentorship and academic role models and they lack the skills to perform cutting edge research. The Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, with substantial and sustained institutional support, has as its goal the creation of a national center of excellence for Pediatric Rheumatology offering comprehensive, state-of-the-art clinical care, educational programs, and competitive research involving clinical, translational, and basic sciences. One of our central missions is to educate a new generation of academic pediatric rheumatologists who can play a leading role in the specialty as physician scientists. We intend to do so by providing, within a single center, the research role models, mentorship, and rich environment necessary for nurturing such individuals and ensuring their success. The Program seeks to train 2 fellows in each year of training. While many of the pediatric rheumatic diseases are distinct from those seen in adults, there are pathophysiologic pathways common to both, as well as to other autoimmune diseases and other processes involving aberrant immune responses. Therefore, our philosophy has been to pursue a multidisciplinary approach. This strategy has been successful and productive in the past. The proposed Training Program is structured to offer trainees the opportunity to interact with research faculty in the pediatric and adult rheumatology divisions and the broader immunology community within the medical center. Program Faculty have been chosen who have external funding, who excel in mentoring trainees, and whose research falls into one of four categories: (1) studies in pediatric rheumatic diseases, (2) studies in rheumatic diseases in general (both pediatric and adult), (3) studies in animal models of autoimmunity, and (4) immunobiological studies judged to be of relevance to the pathophysiology of pediatric rheumatic diseases. A number of faculty are involved in research spanning more than one of these categories.