In an effort to strengthen women's health research in a variety of disciplines, the National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant to the University of California, San Francisco and to the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland to create a scholarship program to train young investigators in women's health and bolster research in this area.
Many of the scholars chosen for this program, called the Women's Health Interdisciplinary Scholarship Program for Research (WHISPR), will be women, said Deborah Grady, MD, UCSF professor of epidemiology and medicine and scholarship program director. UCSF/Kaiser is one of 12 sites nationwide to receive a portion of the $6 million per year the NIH has dedicated to this effort. Steven Cummings, MD, assistant dean for clinical research at UCSF and professor of medicine, is the principle investigator for WHISPR.
"Research in women's health is mushrooming and this creates exciting opportunities for young clinicians and trainees," Cummings said. "The NIH program is the first nationwide effort to train new faculty to do clinical research in women's health. It is the first major collaboration between UCSF and Kaiser to train researchers. We are excited because UCSF and Kaiser are national leaders in women's health and we are a rich place for young faculty to begin successful careers."
Joseph Selby, MD, MPH, director of Kaiser's division of research will lead the program at that institution.
"There is a perceived need from the NIH to address some clear inadequacies in research in women's health. And there is a dearth of women doing women's health research," Grady said. "The idea of this program is two-fold: to increase the amount of quality research in women's health and to increase the number of women doing clinical research."
The program is geared toward junior faculty-clinical researchers who are in the beginning of their career, have some training in research methods and have a strong interest in women's health. The program will provide scholars with salary support, coursework drawn from UCSF's Clinical Research Training Program and Program in Biomedical Science, and help with research and publishing papers.
A key component of this program is mentoring, Grady said. "It's hard for young investigators to get mentoring and on-the-job training," she said. "Participants in this program will have tremendous support from an established research group. For example, in osteoporosis, there are multiple senior investigators who have large and rich data sets that the investigators can use to publish from."
Twelve senior investigators, seven of whom are women, will serve as mentors. All of the mentors have successful research careers in women's health or relevant chronic diseases and a strong track record of training and mentoring. The 12 program research areas are: cardiovascular, breast cancer, skeletal health, neuropsychiatric disorders (dementia and depression), substance abuse, urinary incontinence, HIV in women, sex hormones, woman's imaging (the use of radiologic and other tests specifically designed to diagnose or evaluate diseases of women, such as mammography and transvaginal ultrasound to evaluate the uterus and ovaries),complementary and alternative medicine, health services research and aging.
Scholarships will generally last for two or three years, but scholars can extend this time if they have parental and caregiving responsibilities and need more time to complete the program as a result. The UCSF/Kaiser program will train about two to three fellows each year.
Grady said this program could lend the help many young investigators need to become top level researchers in their field. This program, she said, will result in more senior investigators doing research in women's health. "I think that UCSF already has been able to attract quite a number of very promising postgraduate fellows who receive training in clinical research," Grady said. "But it is very hard to make a move from that level to national recognition in their area of interest and to attain independent funding. It's a difficult leap for everybody, but particularly for women who have traditionally had more family responsibilities and less mentoring."
Often, junior faculty must scramble to find funding for their research and to pay for part or all of their salaries, Grady said. They have to take on more projects and teaching hours to make ends meet. "This program frees them up to spend time publishing papers, completing their didactic education and writing grants to acquire their own independent research funding," Grady said. "In order to be a successful clinical researcher, you have to be able to obtain funding, publish and acquire a national reputation."
Funding for this program begins this fall. UCSF and Kaiser will receive $500,000 each year for five years and will recruit locally and nationally for the program, Grady said.
This new program builds on the research successes of both UCSF and Kaiser in women's health. Nationally and internationally renowned women's health scholars can be found in almost every school, department and research unit at UCSF. This breadth of expertise is supported by a nationally recognized clinical program in women's health, a commitment to the promotion of women as leaders, efforts to restructure the medical school curriculum to integrate women's health and strong long term relationships with communities caring for and about women. Because of this broad agenda, UCSF was one of the first six centers designated a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health by the Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service Office on Women's Health in 1996. Additionally, US News and World Report magazine ranked UCSF number two in women's health in its April 2000 issue as part of the magazine's annual listing of top medical schools and medical specialty training programs in the United States.
Kaiser's Division of Research for Northern California has conducted epidemiological, clinical and health services research since its founding in 1961 and a large number of its 40 full-time scientists devote all or part of their research careers to the study of women's health. The DOR has access to the clinical service records of the 2.9 million members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California and has adopted an organizational priority of being the health care provider of choice for women in California.
"Research on women's health issues is an important piece of the research activity in our department," Selby said. "We see this traineeship as an opportunity to expand this research further, to help Kaiser address the many important questions in this area, and to provide research training opportunities to interested clinicians leaders, both within and outside of our organization."