Research Training Program Research Articles

Training the next generation of delivery science researchers: 10-year experience of a post-doctoral research fellowship program within an integrated care system.

Learning health systems require a workforce of researchers trained in the methods of identifying and overcoming barriers to effective, evidence-based care. Most existing postdoctoral training programs, such as NIH-funded postdoctoral T32 awards, support basic and epidemiological science with very limited focus on rigorous delivery science methods for improving care. In this report, we present the 10-year experience of developing and implementing a Delivery Science postdoctoral fellowship embedded within an integrated health care delivery system. In 2012, the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research designed and implemented a 2-year postdoctoral Delivery Science Fellowship research training program to foster research expertise in identifying and addressing barriers to evidence-based care within health care delivery systems. Since 2014, 20 fellows have completed the program. Ten fellows had PhD-level scientific training, and 10 fellows had clinical doctorates (eg, MD, RN/PhD, PharmD). Fellowship alumni have graduated to faculty research positions at academic institutions (9), and research or clinical organizations (4). Seven alumni now hold positions in Kaiser Permanente's clinical operations or medical group (7). This delivery science fellowship program has succeeded in training graduates to address delivery science problems from both research and operational perspectives. In the next 10 years, additional goals of the program will be to expand its reach (eg, by developing joint research training models in collaboration with clinical fellowships) and strengthen mechanisms to support transition from fellowship to the workforce, especially for researchers from underrepresented groups.

ការលើកកម្ពស់ការស្រាវជ្រាវនៅឧត្តមសិក្សាកម្ពុជា៖ កាលានុវត្តភាព បញ្ហាប្រឈម និងអនុសាសន៍សម្រាប់គោលនយោបាយ

• Research in higher education in Cambodia has seen new developments over the past decade. However, there are remaining challenges that need to be addressed to nurture a robust culture of research in the subsector. • To ensure the smooth process of research development in Cambodian higher education, it is important to establish a clear vision and policy for research, with a clear financial commitment, at both the national and institutional levels. Although some research policies exist, more efforts are needed to ensure the effectiveness of the implementation of such research-oriented policies. • It is also crucial to develop research-supporting mechanisms or systems that can stimulate research interests and encourage research activities among Cambodian researchers, academics, and students. This can be done through various means, including the ongoing provision of competitive research funding, research reward schemes, research incentives, research mentorship and training, and research dissemination platforms. • The development of research-supporting mechanisms or systems is essential to nurture a conducive environment for research to grow. Developing such an environment requires a lot of efforts and commitment, and great attention needs to be paid to various factors that facilitate research, including investment in research and research infrastructure, development of an ecosystem that supports research such as research training and mentoring programs, development of communities of research practice, as well as academic promotion, recruitment, and retention that are based on research.

Explicit and implicit weight bias among health care students: a cross-sectional study of 39 Australian universities

Weight bias exhibited by health care students may continue into their future practice, compromising the provision of care that people living with overweight or obesity receive. This highlights the need to comprehensively examine the extent to which weight bias is present among health care students and the factors that may be associated with students' weight bias. In this cross-sectional study, Australian university students enrolled in health care courses were invited via social media advertisements, snowball and convenience sampling, and by making direct contact with universities to complete an online survey. Students provided demographic information including discipline of study, perceived weight status, and state of residence. Students then completed several measures which assessed their explicit and implicit weight bias, and empathy. Descriptive statistics established the presence of explicit and implicit weight bias, and ANCOVAs, ANOVA, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the potential factors associated with students' exhibited weight bias. Between March 08, 2022, and March 15, 2022, 900 eligible health care students attending 39 Australian universities participated in the study. Students reported varying levels of explicit and implicit weight bias, with minimal differences between disciplines on most outcome measures. Students who identified as men (vs. women) exhibited higher of both explicit and implicit bias (Beliefs About Obese Persons (BAOP): p=0.0002, Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA)-Dislike: p=0.019, AFA Willpower p<0.0001, Empathy for Obese Patients: p=0.0011, Implicit Association Test: p=0.022), and students who displayed greater (vs. less) empathic concern exhibited lower levels of explicit bias (BAOP, AFA Dislike and Willpower, and Empathy for Obese Patients: p<0.0001). Having witnessed the enactment of weight stigma sporadically (vs. regularly) by role models was associated with greater attribution of the causes of obesity to willpower (a few times a month vs. daily: p=0.020, a few times a year vs. daily: p=0.022), and less time spent with people living with overweight or obesity outside of study was associated with more dislike (a few times a month vs. daily: p=0.0048, once a month vs. daily: p=0.0002) and less fear of fat (once a month vs. daily: p=0.036, and once a month vs. a few times a week: p=0.0028). Results demonstrate the presence of both explicit and implicit weight bias among Australian health care students. Several characteristics and experiences of students were associated with their weight bias. Validity of the exhibited weight bias should be established in practical interactions with people living with overweight or obesity and novel interventions should be developed to ameliorate weight bias. Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, Australian Government, Department of Education.

Financial costs of assisted reproductive technology for patients in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

What are the direct costs of assisted reproductive technology (ART), and how affordable is it for patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICS)? Direct medical costs paid by patients for infertility treatment are significantly higher than annual average income and GDP per capita, pointing to unaffordability and the risk of catastrophic expenditure for those in need. Infertility treatment is largely inaccessible to many people in LMICs. Our analysis shows that no study in LMICs has previously compared ART medical costs across countries in international dollar terms (US$PPP) or correlated the medical costs with economic indicators, financing mechanisms, and policy regulations. Previous systematic reviews on costs have been limited to high-income countries while those in LMICs have only focussed on descriptive analyses of these costs. Guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA), we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EconLit, PsycINFO, Latin American & Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, and grey literature for studies published in all languages from LMICs between 2001 and 2020. The primary outcome of interest was direct medical costs paid by patients for one ART cycle. To gauge ART affordability, direct medical costs were correlated with the GDP per capita or average income of respective countries. ART regulations and public financing mechanisms were analyzed to provide information on the healthcare contexts in the countries. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Integrated Quality Criteria for Review of Multiple Study designs. Of the 4062 studies identified, 26 studies from 17 countries met the inclusion criteria. There were wide disparities across countries in the direct medical costs paid by patients for ART ranging from USD2109 to USD18592. Relative ART costs and GDP per capita showed a negative correlation, with the costs in Africa and South-East Asia being on average up to 200% of the GDP per capita. Lower relative costs in the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean regions were associated with the presence of ART regulations and government financing mechanisms. Several included studies were not primarily designed to examine the cost of ART and thus lacked comprehensive details of the costs. However, a sensitivity analysis showed that exclusion of studies with below the minimum quality score did not change the conclusions on the outcome of interest. Governments in LMICs should devise appropriate ART regulatory policies and implement effective mechanisms for public financing of fertility care to improve equity in access. The findings of this review should inform advocacy for ART regulatory frameworks in LMICs and the integration of infertility treatment as an essential service under universal health coverage. This work received funding from the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), a cosponsored programme executed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The authors declare no competing interests. This review is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020199312.

A Student-Centered, Entrepreneurship Development (ASCEND) Undergraduate Summer Research Program: Foundational Training for Health Research.

Increasing the participation of students of African descent and other minoritized populations in the scientific workforce is imperative in generating a more equitable biomedical research infrastructure and increasing national research creativity and productivity. Undergraduate research training programs have shown to be essential tools in retaining underrepresented minority (URM) students in the sciences and attracting them into STEM and biomedical careers. This paper describes an innovative approach to harness students' entrepreneurial desire for autonomy and creativity in a Summer Research Institute (SRI) that has served as an entry point into a multiyear, National Institutes of Health Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (NIH BUILD)-funded research training program. The SRI was designed as an 8-week, student-centered and course-based research model in which students select their own research topics. We test here the effects of SRI training on students' science self-efficacy and science identity, along with several other constructs often associated with academic outcomes in the sciences. The data shown here comprise analysis of four different training cohorts throughout four subsequent summers. We show significant gains in students' science self-efficacy and science identity at the conclusion of SRI training, as well as academic adjustment and sense of belonging. SRI participants also displayed substantially improved retention in their science majors and graduation rates.

Current status and demand for educational activities on publication ethics by academic organizations in Korea: a descriptive study

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the following overarching issues: the current status of research and publication ethics training conducted in Korean academic organizations and what needs to be done to reinforce research and publication ethics training.Methods: A survey with 12 items was examined in a pilot survey, followed by a main survey that was distributed to 2,487 academic organizations. A second survey, which contained six additional questions, was dispatched to the same subjects. The results of each survey were analyzed by descriptive statistical analysis, content analysis, and comparative analysis.Results: More than half of the academic organizations provided research and publication ethics training programs, with humanities and social sciences organizations giving more training than the others (χ&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;=11.190, df=2, P=0.004). The results showed that research and publication ethics training was held mostly once and less than an hour per year, mainly in a lecture format. No significant difference was found in the training content among academic fields. The academic organizations preferred case-based discussion training methods and wanted expert instructors who could give tailored training with examples.Conclusion: A systematic training program that can develop ethics instructors tailored to specific academic fields and financial support from academic organizations can help scholarly editors resolve the apparent gap between the real and the ideal in ethics training, and ultimately to achieve the competency needed to train their own experts.

The Snake Eggs Puzzle: Preparing Students for Benders Decomposition

Logic puzzles are an effective way to introduce students to advanced solution techniques in operations research, such as Lagrangian relaxation, Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition, and Benders decomposition. The Snake Egg puzzle asks the player to draw a one-cell wide path, or “snake,” in a grid. The remaining cells should form a fixed number of separate, connected, discontiguous regions called “eggs.” We propose two solution approaches: a flow-based model and lazy constraints. Instead of providing the complete model at the outset, we will step through the puzzle in a manner suitable to the classroom, emphasizing the skills that are crucial to successfully implementing advanced techniques. The puzzle functions in particular as a prelude to Benders decomposition. Funding: M. Harris is supported by an Australian Government RTP (research training program) scholarship.

Threat of air pollution in the cleanest plateau

Threat of air pollution in the cleanest plateau

Predictors of academic career progression among early career physician-scientists via an intensive research training program abroad: a case study

BackgroundDespite extensive efforts to revitalize the physician-scientist pipeline, attrition has been observed along the physician-scientist developmental pathway. Research exposure during clinical training is considered an important factor favoring the decision to pursue an academic career pathway.MethodsThe authors sought to identify factors associated with academic career progression among junior physician-scientists following the completion of an intensive research training program, using the framework of the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), to benefit the design of efforts to revitalize the physician-scientist career pipeline. We conducted a retrospective study of 108 physicians who completed a long-term research training program abroad during residency, or within a few years post-residency completion, between 2010 and 2017. With potential predictors of academic career progression prioritized by SCCT, multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of sustained research involvement, high productivity and high research competency after training, respectively. The SCCT was used to illuminate our findings.ResultsCo-publications with training supervisors abroad and medical oncology/pediatric oncology as a clinical specialty were positively associated with sustained research involvement and high productivity. Joining the training program after the age of 36 was negatively associated with high research competency. All of the predictors shared a common feature of high correlation with both self-efficacy and environmental elements, the reciprocal interactions of which may affect the career progression of physician-scientists.ConclusionsInsights gained through this analysis provide policy recommendations for the designing of efforts to revitalize the physician-scientist career pipeline. Priorities should be given to institutional oversight to ensure strengthened self-efficacy at the beginning of one’s academic career, by providing long-term research training opportunities to young residents and promoting co-publications with their training supervisors during the training. In order to avoid the negative impact to self-efficacy caused by patient-related burnout or academic isolation, academic medical centers should take measures to guarantee protected research time, and to develop a positive culture encouraging mentoring relationships between junior and experienced physician-scientists in medical departments.

Advancing biomedical science through investments in elite training.

How can governments invest in the public good of science in a way that accelerates advancement and encourages innovation at the frontier of science-all the while acknowledging that investing in science means investing in scientists? The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) program is a research-training program administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that makes such investments. This study examines the impact of NRSA postdoctoral fellowships on subsequent career outcomes using NIH administrative records on applicants for the fellowship from 1996 to 2008. It finds that fellowships increased the probability of receiving subsequent research awards from 4.0 to 6.3 percentage points and of achieving a major independent research award from 2.6 to 4.6 percentage points. The findings demonstrate that federally funded fellowships promote the retention of scientists in the biomedical research workforce.

Case of the Month from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia: combination of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy and radical nephrectomy for synchronous bilateral primary renal cell carcinoma.

Case of the Month from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia: combination of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy and radical nephrectomy for synchronous bilateral primary renal cell carcinoma.

Investigation and analysis of Chinese public's cognition for clinical research.

Clinical research plays a vital role in disease research and population health. The public is the main source of clinical research volunteers. Understanding the public's cognition of clinical research plays a decisive role in the development of clinical research. This study aims to understand the Chinese public's cognition for clinical research and the influencing factors. The questionnaire based on Chinese-translated Public Awareness of Research for Therapeutic Advancements through Knowledge and Empowerment (PARTAKE) was used to investigate the public's cognition for clinical research. Of the 2 513 valid respondents, 91.84% had heard of "clinical research", 91.76% of the respondents believed that clinical research was beneficial to society, 65.90% were willing to participate in clinical research, 87.50% believed that confidentiality was a very important thing, 73.70% believed that their personal information had been protected when participating in clinical research, and, 46.40% did not know whether volunteers participating in clinical research could receive adequate compensation. Educational levels, employment status, and annual income impacted in public perceptions of willingness to participate in clinical research, especially in privacy protection, informed consent, whether clinical research is intended for society, compensation for clinical research, and safety of clinical research (all P<0.01). The Chinese public's cognition level for clinical research is acceptable, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in privacy protection, informed consent, and compensation. By designing a reasonable knowledge training program for clinical research and using the multimedia, improving access to the relevant knowledge, more public will know about clinical research recruitment information, which is of great significance for the development of clinical research in China.

Supporting early-career women researchers: lessons from a global mentorship programme

ABSTRACT Mentorship is an important contributor to strengthening research capacity among health researchers. Formal mentorship programmes, targeting women mentees can help mitigate some of the gendered power dynamics and can also help early career researchers learn from others’ experiences of navigating these challenges. In 2020, the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction at the World Health Organization launched a mentorship programme geared towards early career women researchers. This paper describes the process of designing and implementing a mentorship programme for early career women sexual and reproductive health and rights researchers from low- and middle-income countries including valuable lessons learned vis-à-vis existing evidence. Some of these findings have been incorporated into iterations of the programme launched in 2022. Critical points include: ensuring considerations for language and geographical distribution; allowing mentees to participate in the matching process; providing training and opportunities to network and learn from other participants; offering the support and structure for developing these relationships. Providing women researchers with the tools – through mentorship – to navigate the unique challenges they face in their career journeys, can have a lasting impact on research capacity. Countries and institutions committed to strengthening research capacity need to focus on the holistic growth and motivation of individuals in a way that ensures gender equality.

Is β-Cell Dysfunction Present in Adult Autoantibody Negative Relatives of Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus?

Background/Objective: Individuals with a family history of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) are at increased genetic risk for T1D. Previous studies identified the presence of β-cell dysfunction before clinical onset and diagnosis of T1D. However, it is unclear if β-cell dysfunction predates islet autoimmunity in individuals at high genetic risk. Our objective was to test β-cell function in islet antibody negative adults who have a first-degree relative with T1D. We hypothesized that individuals at genetic risk for T1D would exhibit β-cell dysfunction even without detectable islet autoimmunity.Methods: We used ordinary one-way and Brown-Forsythe ANOVA to compare the repeated mixed meal tolerance test (MMTT) and hyperglycemic clamp glucose-stimulated β-cell response and function measures between three groups of individuals: normoglycemic adults without T1D family history age, sex, and BMI-matched islet antibody negative first-degree relatives of individuals with T1D, and islet antibody positive first-degree relatives of individuals with T1D.Results: Neither the MMTT first-phase insulin secretion measures (c-peptide0-15 minutes, c-peptide0-30 minutes, insulin0-15 minutes, insulin0-30 minutes), nor second-phase measures (c-peptide0-120 minutes, insulin0-120 minutes, and glucose0-120 minutes) showed a statistically significant difference between groups. The clamp acute c-peptide response to glucose, insulin sensitivity, c-peptide steady state, first-phase β-cell function, and second-phase β-cell function were similar between subject groups in both visits. Fasting proinsulin:c-peptide ratios, a biomarker of β-cell stress, were also similar between participant groups.Conclusion and Impact: Our data suggest that genetically at-risk autoantibody negative adult relatives of individuals with T1D do not demonstrate β-cell dysfunction compared to controls. Studies show that β-cell ER dysfunction preceding T1D onset is more striking in younger children. Thus, our findings may reflect the use of an adult study population. Alternatively, β-cell dysfunction in T1D may require initial autoimmune activation. This study will contribute to the growing understanding of risk factors contributing to T1D development.This project was funded, in part, with support from the Research Training Program in Diabetes and Obesity funded, in part by grant 3T32DK064466 from the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Funding also provided by JDRF grant 2-SRA-2017-498-M-B.

Resident Performance Evaluations May Be Biased Toward Whites

Resident Performance Evaluations May Be Biased Toward Whites

Culturally and socially responsible assessment: theory, research, and practice

&lt;i&gt;Multicultural education is beginning to gain inroads into teaching practices, educational research, and teacher training programs. There is a growing list of resources to support educators in creating welcoming spaces in the classroom for marginalized students from underrepresented groups. Educational researchers and practitioners have provided frameworks for the proper integration of multicultural content and strategies into the teaching and learning process. However, a vital part of the learning process is assessment, which is majorly framed after the content of the dominant culture. Research has shown that intelligence and state-approved tests are characterized by content that is relatable to students from the dominant culture. Taylor and Nolen (2022) have combined years of experience in teaching and research to suggest ways of creating an inclusive and just assessment that showcases the diversity of the modern American classroom. This article is a review of their book, whose aim is to situate culturally and socially responsible assessment in educational theory, research, and practice.&lt;/i&gt;

Approaches for Measuring Inclusive Demographics Across Youth Enjoy Science Cancer Research Training Programs.

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Youth Enjoy Science Program (YES) funds initiatives to support the cancer research training and career ambitions of middle school through undergraduate students from populations underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. The program has funded 16 institutions nationally as of January 2022. Given the program's focus on increasing diversity within the cancer research workforce, demographic characteristics of YES trainees provide essential information about the populations being served and program effectiveness. Six programs formed an interest group focused on trainee demographics and surveyed all YES grantees about their demographic data practices. Fifteen programs (94%) completed the survey. Survey data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and thematic coding. Findings revealed considerable variability in programs' approach to demographic data, including which demographics were measured, how they were operationalized, and when and how the data were collected. Half of YES programs (53%) could report underrepresented populations in biomedical research among trainees using consistent definitions. Most programs described efforts to improve their demographic data practices; however, challenges remained for the vast majority. In consideration of these findings, we offer recommendations for inclusive demographic data practices to better define and retain underrepresented populations in biomedical sciences.

Strength and Conditioning Practices of Brazilian Olympic Sprint and Jump Coaches.

Olympic coaches are likely to have adequate knowledge and implement effective training programs. This study aimed to describe and critically examine the strength and conditioning practices adopted by Brazilian Olympic sprint and jump coaches. Nineteen Olympic coaches (age: 50.2 ± 10.8 years; professional experience: 25.9 ± 13.1 years) completed a survey consisting of eight sections: 1) background information; 2) strength-power development; 3) speed training; 4) plyometrics; 5) flexibility training; 6) physical testing; 7) technology use; and 8) programming. It was noticed that coaches prioritized the development of explosiveness, power, and sprinting speed in their training programs, given the specific requirements of sprint and jump events. Nevertheless, unexpectedly, we observed: (1) large variations in the number of repetitions performed per set during resistance training in the off-season period, (2) a higher volume of resistance training prescribed during the competitive period (compared to other sports), and (3) infrequent use of traditional periodization models. These findings are probably related to the complex characteristics of modern competitive sports (e.g., congested competitive schedule) and the individual needs of sprinters and jumpers. Identification of training practices commonly used by leading track and field coaches may help practitioners and sport scientists create more effective research projects and training programs.

How undergraduates historically underrepresented in biomedical sciences value multiple components of a research training program.

To promote diversity in the STEM workforce, undergraduate research training programs incorporating a variety of intervention strategies have been developed to support students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in overcoming numerous systemic barriers to pursuing careers in science. However, relatively little research has focused on how students experience and value these interventions and the ways in which the interventions support student success. The current study analyzed qualitative interviews from participants (n=15) in a comprehensive research training program for undergraduates historically underrepresented in biomedical research to investigate the student perspective on how specific program components address barriers and support their research training, academic progress, and career preparation. Findings indicated that students benefit from authentic research experiences, mentoring, supplemental curriculum, financial assistance, and a supportive program environment. Participants described how the program helped them address financial concerns, navigate academic and career choices, build science identity and efficacy, and feel a sense of belonging within a caring community. The study highlights how multi-faceted research training programs offering a variety of supports can contribute to student retention and development according to the needs and circumstances of individual students.

Evaluation of an experiential training program in patient-centered outcomes and comparative effectiveness research for diverse researcher communities and health care organizations

The goal of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Partnership was to prepare health care professionals and researchers to conduct patient-centered outcomes and comparative effectiveness research (CER). Substantial evidence gaps, heterogeneous health care systems, and decision-making challenges in the USA underscore the need for evidence-based strategies. We engaged five community-based health care organizations that serve diverse and underrepresented patient populations from Hawai'i to Minnesota. Each partner nominated two in-house scholars to participate in the 2-year program. The program focused on seven competencies pertinent to patient-centered outcomes and CER. It combined in-person and experiential learning with asynchronous, online education, and created adaptive, pragmatic learning opportunities and a Summer Institute. Metrics included the Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory (CRAI), a tool designed to assess research self-efficacy and clinical research skills across 10 domains. We trained 31 scholars in 3 cohorts. Mean scores in nine domains of the CRAI improved; greater improvement was observed from the beginning to the midpoint than from the midpoint to conclusion of the program. Across all three cohorts, mean scores on 52 items (100%) increased (p ≤ 0.01), and 91% of scholars reported the program improved their skills moderately/significantly. Satisfaction with the program was high (91%). Investigators that conduct patient-centered outcomes and CER must know how to collaborate with regional health care systems to identify priorities; pose questions; design, conduct, and disseminate observational and experimental research; and transform knowledge into practical clinical applications. Training programs such as ours can facilitate such collaborations.