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AAMC Panel releases Report on Bioterrorism Education Lawsuit Filed Against Princeton Review Containing SARS: University of Toronto Rises to the Challenge Nanotechnology: The Science of the Very Small Innovations in Medical Education: Doctor in the Court A Word from the President: Clinical Investigators for a Global Future Viewpoint: Summer School, NIH Style
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A Word From the PresidentClinical Investigators for a Global Future
Recognizing this new reality, the National Institute of Health's Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the Ellison Medical Foundation have launched an exciting new program to encourage cross-cultural clinical research focused on global health issues. The new competitive program, being implemented in collaboration with the AAMC and the Association of Schools of Public Health, invites U.S. medical students and other graduate students in the health professions to participate for a full year in mentored clinical research in one of several carefully selected overseas sites, each of which has an established relationship with an academic medical center in the U.S. In the program's inaugural year, sites have been selected in Botswana, Brazil, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mali, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, and Zambia. Students may find themselves studying strains of drug-resistant malaria in Mali, working on tuberculosis prevention and control in Uganda, conducting HIV vaccine trials in Haiti, or investigating tropical diseases in Brazil. Each site chosen for this special program has both an FIC international training grant and an NIH-funded clinical research program. In addition, each site features strong ethical review and oversight of its research, a demonstrated interest and expertise in mentoring students, and appropriate research facilities. Those criteria are being used to identify still more sites to expand research opportunities in the years to come. This novel program is designed primarily for advanced-level students at U.S. Medical schools, doctoral level students at schools of public health, and doctoral level students in other health professions (e.g., nursing, dentistry) with an interest in clinical research. Selected fellows (12-14 individuals in 2004, increasing to 25-30 students in subsequent years) will be paired with mentors from the foreign training sites to which they are assigned. Equally important, each fellow will be paired with a peer trainee from the developing country where the research is being conducted in an effort to establish enduring relationships that will seed tomorrow's global community of scientists and investigators. To motivate participants to continue their work after completing their fellowships, mentors at their home institutions are being tasked to encourage students to stick with their clinical research interests and involvement in global health issues. Fellows will be tracked over time to evaluate whether their year abroad reinforced their interest in clinical research in general, and in health problems in developing countries in particular. These data will be used to strengthen the program over time as it endeavors to build an international community of medical scholars prepared to collaborate in tackling the myriad diseases for which arbitrary national borders are no boundary. Additional information about program requirements and applications can be found at www.aamc.org/overseasfellowship. This Web site, designed by the AAMC, contains comprehensive information about the program including eligibility requirements and detailed information about the research currently being conducted at each of the fellowship sites. Completed applications must be received by Jan. 6, 2004. The AAMC is establishing an External Review Committee that will evaluate applications. Lynn Eckhert, M.D., M.P.H., immediate past chair of the AAMC Council of Academic Societies, will chair this committee, and representatives from allopathic and osteopathic medicine, public health, nursing, and dentistry will fill out the membership. The committee will select approximately 25 finalists, who will attend the Annual Program Selection Conference next March at NIH. There, students and foreign training site representatives will have an opportunity to meet and submit their respective preferences to determine the best "matches." People respond to the word "globalization" in many different ways. There are those who regard "globalization" as an ominous movement instigated by industrialized nations bent on oppressing underdeveloped ones. But stripped of its political connotations, the word connotes nothing more than the inescapable reality that our world is becoming a smaller and smaller place with every passing year. In the world of medicine, one need look no further than the SARS outbreak or the West Nile virus to be convinced that health threats half a world away can soon become health threats in our own backyard. Beyond considerations of self-protection, however, is our obligation to extend our knowledge and expertise to dramatically reduce the burden of disease that stifles the aspirations of countless millions of our fellow inhabitants on this shrinking planet. What better way to meet that obligation than by preparing our future clinical scientists not only to be aware of the health concerns of developing countries but also to be on close professional terms with those countries' scientists so that requisite collaborative efforts can be identified promptly and mounted collegially. This program is one small but important step in that direction. The AAMC is proud to assist the Fogarty International Center and the Ellison Medical Foundation in achieving this forward-looking goal.
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Contact Us © 1995-2008 AAMC Terms and Conditions Privacy Statement |
When
tomorrow's historians begin to chronicle the dawn of the 21st century,
they will almost certainly highlight our world's increasing consciousness
of its interdependence. Abundant evidence will be found in contemporary
headlines that speak repeatedly of "globalization" when
describing cultural, economic, environmental, and political matters.
This unprecedented interconnectedness of human affairs across the
globe has certainly not spared the realm of medicine, as scientists
and researchers take advantage of modern communications technologies
to pool their talents and resources to solve some of the world's
most intractable health problems.