Resident Research Traning and Career Development


Many graduate medical education programs at UCSF are working to facilitate clinical and translational research opportunities for residents who plan to make research a part of their careers.

CTST has established research elective and other initiatives to help promote residents' career development. The goals are to create opportunities for all residents to gain a foundational understanding of clinical and translational research methods and evidence-based medicine skills, and to inspire and facilitate residents to pursue future opportunities for career development as investigators.

Building Skills

Designing Clinical Research for Residents and Students
EPI 150.03 Winter 2008 (2 units)

Course Director: Douglas Bauer, MD
Professor,General Internal Medicine & Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Co-Director: Thomas Novotny, MD MPH
Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics

This course requires 50% protected time and will be taught twice a year in a one-month format (Each year in August and February).

Modeled after the highly successful summer clinical research workshop of the Training in Clinical Research (TICR) program, the elective will lead residents through the essential components for writing a clinical research protocol, developed around their own clinical research question. The tangible product of the course is a 5-page clinical research protocol. The residents will attend bi-weekly group lectures and small resident-only seminar groups led by core faculty for the CTST resident initiative (Drs. Bauer, Learman, and von Scheven) with additional faculty participating to meet resident enrollment.

Prerequisites and Registration. It is highly recommended that residents receive mentorship and additional guidance regarding the selection of a suitable research project from a member of their home Department prior to the course. The CTST is sponsoring residents who wish to take this course by paying their course fee of $1000. A detailed schedule with registration information and deadlines appears at the Epi 150.03 link above.

For those residents with at least one year of protected time for research, we encourage enrollment in the Advanced Training in Clinical Research Program Certificate Program (ATCR). Residents pursuing ATCR without Departmental support should consult CTST to determine the availability of tuition assistance.

Clinical and Translational Research Area of Distinction. For residents who plan to pursue research careers, the research elective or ATCR program will be supplemented by a series of Longitudinal Resident Research Seminars teaching advanced topics and providing a venue for works-in-progress presentations. Several Departments have already established on-going seminars for this purpose. CTST is working to expand access to these seminars to accommodate residents from multiple Departments and to promote co-mentoring across departments.

Building a Research Community

• Resident Research Symposia. CTST will sponsor a yearly resident research symposium where selected abstracts will be presented and high-quality clinical and translational research and mentoring will be acknowledged. Details will be posted on this webpage as the event draws nearer.
• Longitudinal Resident Research Seminars. The seminars are described above under Building Skills; however, they also play an important role in building a research community. The seminars will be supplemented by other programs designed to encourage resident participation in research, such as journal clubs, dinner programs with high profile speakers, and funds for pilot data.

Resources for Getting Started

• Mentoring. Successful resident research training requires a significant commitment to mentoring by the home Departments. Although ATCR-trained and other qualified faculty are increasingly found in most clinical Departments, their availability is not uniform across all residency programs. CTST is committed to work with Departments and help them identify faculty development resources and build successful mentorship programs.
• Start-up Grants. CTST is planning to offer small competitive grants of up to $1000 to residents to help support the start-up costs of their research. These grants would be awarded to residents whose work is not supported by a faculty grant and could be used to obtain pilot data, purchase study-related supplies, and obtain analytic assistance. Details about the grant program will be added to this webpage as they become available.

CTST Contacts
For further information about Epi 150.03, please contact Olivia De Leon. For information about other training opportunities for residents, please contact one of the following:

Doug Bauer MD, CTST Associate Director for Resident Research Training. Dr. Bauer is Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Lee Learman MD, PhD, CTST Resident Research Co-Director and Director of Curricular Affairs for Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Learman is Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Emily von Scheven MD, CTST Resident Research Co-Director. Dr. von Scheven is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in Pediatric Rheumatology.