Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center is among the first 35 academic research centers in the country to receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to specially train individuals in the fundamentals of clinical research. The training will include biostatistics, epidemiology, research project design, research ethics, legal and regulatory issues in human subject research.
The new NIH initiative, funded at $7 million annually, is designed for physicians, scientists and other individuals with a variety of educational and clinical experience who are now performing work supported by NIH training grants, other federal awards and /or non-federal funds. The program is administered by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
"Clinical research is more complex and exciting than perhaps any other time in our history, said Dr. Henry Black, chairman of the department of preventive medicine, a nationally recognized researcher in hypertension and disease prevention, and principal investigator for the grant. "Individuals preparing for a career that involves clinical research must be fully prepared to conduct research of the highest quality to ensure that the results are valid and that the research meets the highest scientific, ethical and regulatory standards."
Black submitted his application for the grant to the NIH in the fall, and grant recipients were announced in June. Rush will train five to ten individuals per year who will earn a master's degree in science in clinical research.
In addition to Dr. Black, Dr. Paul Carvey, chairman of the department of pharmacology, and Dr. George Bakris, vice chair of the department of preventive medicine, will help direct the program. Peter Meyer, PhD, section director of biostatistics, Lynda Powell, PhD, section director of epidemiology, Dr. Kevin Weiss, director of the Center for Health Services Research, and Dr. John Somberg, director of clinical pharmacology, will be in charge of the many facets of the curriculum. They will be assisted by a large number of Rush faculty.
Clinical research at Rush has grown dramatically over the past decade and now includes approximately 1,500 projects. External funding for research, primarily from the NIH, has also grown. For the 1998 fiscal year, Rush expenditures for research totaled more than $50 million, up from $17.5 million in 1988. Rush physicians and scientists annually publish approximately 2,000 papers each year on the results of their research in medical and scientific journals.
Other Midwest academic medical centers to receive awards include the Mayo Clinic, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.