 Fellowship in Health Services Research
 Overview Different types of health professionals bring unique perspectives to the conduct of health services research (HSR). The applicant proposes to train postdoctoral fellows from Medicine, Pharmacy, and Nursing to perform health services research. The mission of the MUSC Fellowship in Health Services Research is to (1) Conduct health services research in an applied research setting, (2) Stimulate improvement in the healthcare system's responsiveness to diverse groups of patients, including minority, poor and other underserved patients, both as direct providers and HSR researchers, (3) Serve as role models and mentors in health services research. The proposed training program is a partnership between the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing at MUSC. It is based in an interdisciplinary center, the Center for Health Care and Research.
Academic faculty in medicine, nursing and pharmacy often become faculty members after completing professional training that does not prepare them to conduct health services research. In medicine and pharmacy, most doctoral (MD, PharmD) and postgraduate training programs are designed to develop advanced healthcare practitioners rather than health services researchers. PhD nursing research training programs also typically do not include training and skills acquisition specific to HSR. The result is that the disciplines of nursing, pharmacy and some specialties in medicine such as pediatrics continue to be underrepresented among health services researchers nationally. This fellowship is geared toward producing a tenure track health services researcher. The curriculum is based on that described by Bland.
The proposed program benefits from ongoing training programs at MUSC. The applicant will train fellows in conjunction with other successful fellowship programs that include some training in HSR. Those programs include the Academic Generalist Fellowship, the HRSA-funded Academic Units in Primary Care Program (a collaboration between Family Medicine, General Pediatrics and General Internal Medicine), and the Pharmacy Research Outcomes Program.
During a 2 - 3 year full time fellowship physicians, pharmacists and nurses will receive didactic instruction and practical experience in HSR and the professional skills necessary for success in academic medicine. The fellows will participate in the Master of Science in Clinical Research program in the Department of Biometry and Epidemiology and complete research projects and grant applications.
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