Mentored Clinical Research
The central element of the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship (DDCRF) at the University of Pittsburgh is participation in mentored clinical research.
Fellows may work with any of the faculty from the School of Medicine or any of the five other Schools of the Health Sciences (Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health) who conduct NIH or other federally-funded clinical research. An optimal mentored clinical research experience should encompass at least three features:
- An experienced and responsive mentor;
- An interesting research project that the student can take ownership of;
- The opportunity to work as part of a multidisciplinary team that provides exposure to all phases of research: conception, design, grant writing, recruitment and consent, data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
To maximize the mentor-mentee relationship, all University of Pittsburgh Doris Duke Fellows complete a structured, interactive half-day workshop with their mentors. Additionally, the Associate Program Leader monitors the relationship throughout the year to ensure that the learning needs of each fellow are met.
University of Pittsburgh medical students who apply to the DDCRF are expected to have identified and worked with their clinical research mentor as part of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Scholarly Project.
Medical students from other schools who apply to the DDCRF aren't expected to know about all of the University of Pittsburgh's clinical research resources. For that reason, we work one-on-one with each applicant to identify potential mentors, based upon your interests. Contact the Associate Program Leader, Dr. Barnato, to set up a phone appointment before you prepare your University of Pittsburgh application.
Web Resources
- To search for faculty by research interest, use the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Faculty Research Interests Project.
- To confirm that a faculty member has federal funding, search by name at the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects**.
- To see a description of the mentored clinical research conducted by current and former medical students, peruse the work done by students in the Clinical Scientist Training Program.
** The database, maintained by the Office of Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health, includes projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Office of Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH). Although not searchable in this database, investigators funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense also are eligible to be program mentors.
