CIST Conference Offers Opportunity to Network, Make New Friends, Get Together with Former Acquaintances, and Rub Elbows with America's Top Research Scientists

Episode # 54
Uploaded: January 7, 2011
Running Time: 5:20

SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

It was a chance for medical, dental, and even some veterinary school students, all of whom are participating in a year of academic enrichment involving research, which augments their formal studies, to get together with other students who are doing the same thing…an opportunity to swap stories, ideas and social networking information. That was one of the goals of the Clinical Investigator Student Trainee Forum, also known as the CIST Forum. For two days in November, over 260 CIST fellows convened at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland to network, to hear from former CIST fellows who are now making their mark in the world of clinical research and to gain additional insights related to what it will take to have a successful career as a clinical or translational researcher. The value of the forum was not lost on Shah Ali, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

ALI: These are going to be my future colleagues, you know future collaborators, and people that I'll be seeing over and over again so getting to know them now at this early stage is just going to be beneficial for fostering those relationships.

SCHMALFELDT: Diya Surie, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Applied Epidemiology Fellow from Louisiana State University welcomed the opportunity to tour the NIH Campus.

SURIE: "I have never been to the NIH before, so I think just having a basic introduction to this center and the opportunities that it offers both for my current career path as well as long term is beneficial.

SCHMALFELDT: Hari Trivedi, a NIH Clinical Center Clinical Research Training Program fellow from the Medical College of Georgia said he really enjoyed the speech by NIH Director, Dr. Francis S. Collins.

TRIVEDI: Dr. Collins was amazing; he's like the superman of scientists, and it was really entertaining and informative. I thought when one of my colleagues asked a question about how the human genome has kind of revolutionized the time process for discovering the causes of diseases, when he compared cystic fibrosis you know it took 9 years to discover the genome versus you can do something now in two days, its pretty amazing.

SCHMALFELDT: But for some of the attendees, it wasn't Dr. Collins "speaking" they'll remember the most.

(Audio blends into Dr. Collins singing, fades under voice...)

SCHMALFELDT: The 8th Annual CIST Forum offered fellows and scholars access to possible future mentors and leaders in their fields of interest. For the second year, CIST Forum organizers used social media to appeal to their millennial generation audience. Students asked questions and staff provided helpful links through tweets marked with the hashtag #CIST8. These tweets were displayed on the Masur Auditorium screen during question-and-answer sessions and breaks. Additionally, an online networking group linked attendees and organizers before, during and after the conference—getting them need-to-know information and letting them coordinate travel. Tours of Clinical Center hospital and research facilities allowed forum attendees to see first-hand the cutting-edge facilities that allow the groundbreaking work of the NIH intramural research program. The CIST Forum is the brainchild of Clinical Center Director, Dr. John I. Gallin, Dr. Elaine K. Gallin, former Program Director for Medical Research at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Dr. Frederick P. Ognibene, Deputy Director for Educational Affairs and Strategic Partnerships in the Clinical Center, and Dr. Michael Gottesman, NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research. Their collective vision led to this unique opportunity for students involved in year-long research and enrichment programs to get together to share experiences, hear about up-to-date medical advances, and gain knowledge designed to help them with advancing their careers. For more information about the recent CIST Forum at the NIH Clinical Center, or to learn more about the more than 1,500 clinical research trials going on every day, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Back to Clinical Center Radio