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BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 1 - Thirty medical students representing 19 schools from around the country have been selected for fellowships in the 2006-2007 Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) for Medical and Dental Students at the National Institutes of Health, it was announced today. The recipients, who have completed clinical rotations at their home institutions, arrive this summer at the NIH to begin 12 months of clinical and translational research training in their chosen field. This is the program’s tenth year.
The training program, established at NIH in 1997 with nine fellows, provides creative, research-oriented medical and dental students with an opportunity to become involved with and learn about clinical research early in their careers. Since 1998, the program has been supported jointly by the NIH and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through grants from Pfizer Inc as part of the company’s commitment to public-private partnerships. The partnership included 15 students annually starting in 1998. In 2004, the program was expanded to accept 30 students a year thanks to support through the NIH Roadmap as part of its Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise initiative (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/index.asp). “NIH’s Clinical Research Training Program offers medical and dental students a remarkable foundation for their involvement in clinical research as their careers progress,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. “Better health and health care for all depend on clinician-scientists who can, through clinical research, translate and optimize innovations in scientific discovery.” One hundred and sixty students who represent the next generation of clinician-scientists have participated in the program to date. A committee of established clinical researchers at the NIH reviews and makes selections based on applications received from qualified medical and dental students around the country. This year’s recipients were selected from a field of 80 applicants. The 30 CRTP Fellows selected for 2006-2007 and their home institutions are:
- Yachna Ahuja, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
- Candice Bereal, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
- Elizabeth Burney, Duke University School of Medicine
- Jeong Choi, State University of New York-Brooklyn School of Medicine
- Jason Clark, Duke University School of Medicine
- Dana Crum, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
- Andrew Demidowich,UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
- Amit Dhamoon, State University of New York (SUNY) at Syracuse School of Medicine
- Brandi Freeman, Baylor College of Medicine
- Robert Hayward, Duke University School of Medicine
- James Head, Duke University School of Medicine
- Jeffrey Helgager, Duke University School of Medicine
- Joshua Joseph, Boston University School of Medicine
- Joohee Lee, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
- Anna Likhacheva, University of Arizona School of Medicine
- Jack Liu, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
- Kit Lu, Florida State University College of Medicine
- Janay Mckie, Duke University School of Medicine
- Mark Mishra, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
- Pretesh Patel, Duke University School of Medicine
- Tara Rao, New York University School of Medicine
- Geoffrey Rau, Duke University School of Medicine
- Eunice Rhee, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
- Kunal Saigal, University of Miami School of Medicine
- Thai Lan Tran, University of Vermont School of Medicine
- Keli Turner, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- Amit Vora, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
- Jennifer Warner, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- Kristin Weeks, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
- Omair Yousuf, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Simply described, the goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold. The NIH mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone, and providing learning opportunities for students is a critical to encouraging future science and scientists.
“While at NIH, the fellows are paired with a renowned investigator as a mentor,” noted CRTP Director Frederick P. Ognibene, M.D. “These clinician-scientist mentors are individuals who are making groundbreaking discoveries and moving scientific knowledge from the bench to the bedside. During the year-long experience the students learn the principles of clinical research, write a research protocol, and conduct either clinical or translational research alongside some of the most prominent researchers in the world today,” he said. “It’s an experience that would be hard to replicate elsewhere. In my six years as director, I have been uniformly impressed that the CRTP has been a life-changing and career-enhancing experience for its participants.” Students work with their mentors at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the world’s largest hospital exclusively devoted to clinical research.
Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures and markets leading prescription medicines, for humans and animals. In addition to supporting the NIH Clinical Research Training Program, Pfizer, through its Public Health Group, creates and manages other pioneering public-private partnership programs and advances cutting-edge public health research. One such public-private partnership program is a clinical epidemiology fellowship program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Furthermore, through its Medical & Academic Partnerships (MAP) initiative, Pfizer's Public Health Group supports 21 grants and awards. These grants provide financial support for fellows, scholars, and host institutions in a wide range of therapeutic areas, health literacy topics, and public health issues. Recipients of these nationally competitive MAP grants are selected by independent academic advisory boards made up of leaders in each program’s field.
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