NIH launches Medical Research Scholars Program

Episode # 73
Uploaded: October 12, 2011
Running Time: 02:31

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

NIH began receiving applications Oct. 3 to its Medical Research Scholars Program, a brand new program for medical, dental, osteopathic, and veterinary students looking to enrich their training as clinician-scientists. The program offers research experiences with intramural investigators from across NIH, says Dr. Fred Ognibene, director of the Clinical Center’s Office of Clinical Research Training and Medical Education.

DR. OGNIBENE: The NIH has a long history of training the next generation of clinician-scientists and that occurs at many different levels. We’ve had a strong interest in what we consider early capture—getting students ideally in medical, dental, osteopathic, and veterinary, early in their careers, to come the NIH for a mentored experience that will hopefully, to use the phrase, “get the hook in them,” so they are poised for a long career in clinical, translational, or basic research.

CROWN: Dr. Ognibene says that program participants can look forward to an innovative curriculum of training on clinical protocol development and the conduct of human subjects research, along with seminars focusing on basic and laboratory studies and their translation into clinical protocols.

DR. OGNIBENE: It’s an opportunity to be creative; to be production; to remain clinically active but also to take discoveries that can also be translated into the delivery of improve health care of all of human kind…

CROWN: The program is made possible through a partnership with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, supported by a grant from Pfizer Inc and contributions from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Applications will be accepted through mid-January 2012. The program is expected to accept about 40 students during its first year. As it grows, that number may increase up to 70. For those accepted to this program…

DR. OGNIBENE: I would go on the record and guarantee an amazing year for them.

CROWN: To apply for the Medical Research Scholars Program or any of NIH’s other training programs, visit http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/training. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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