Program Overview
We live in an exciting era of scientific revolution. The nation has devoted extensive resources to basic biomedical research, and this has led to many fundamental discoveries. Unfortunately, significant barriers between basic science and clinical research still exist and make it difficult to translate new knowledge into enhanced clinical care of the patient—and back again to the bench. Clinical and translational science is the emerging field that aims at closing the gap between basic science and clinical research.
The Institute for Clinical Research Education (ICRE) at the University of Pittsburgh has designed the PhD Program in Clinical and Translational Science to help train investigators to re-engineer the ways in which basic scientific discoveries are translated to improve health and health care. The rigorous and advanced training program is intended primarily for clinicians, and it aims to substantially enhance the capabilities of scientists to conduct high-quality clinical and translational research.
The PhD program has several unique and important attributes:
- It is highly multidisciplinary in that its faculty and students are expected to span not only departments but also schools of the health sciences.
- It has a deep and diverse curriculum that draws on biostatistics, clinical research methods, and laboratory and population-based sciences.
- It focuses on the conduct of clinical and translational research and requires the planning, execution, and completion of an independent research project by each PhD candidate.
For details about the program requirements, courses, examination requirements, and milestones please see our Program Handbook.
