Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Required Courses:

• Principles of Clinical Research - The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the objectives, research strategies and methods of patient-oriented research. Topics include: competing objectives of clinical research, principles of observational studies, principles of clinical trials, principles of meta-analysis, interpretation of diagnostic tests, prognostic studies, causal inference, qualitative research methods and decision analysis. Credit if student is a candidate for the joint MD-MHS degree.

• Applied Principles of Clinical Research (5th Year Seminars). The purpose of this intense two week course is to provide an overview of the objectives, research strategies, and methods of conducting patient-oriented research. Topics include research designs, how to ask a research question, data collection, how to write a protocol, bias in studies, qualitative methods, etc. Emphasis is placed on applying concepts to students' actual research projects to illuminate concepts. Credit if student is a candidate for the joint MD-MHS degree.

• Introduction to Biostatistics: The purpose of this course is to familiarize the clinical investigator in training with the fundamentals of study design and statistical analysis. Experimental and observational designs will be examined and methods of graphing and summarizing data explored. Topics discussed in lecture include probability, measures of association and confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, longitudinal data analysis and power analysis. The class is divided between lecture and a computer lab designed to provide a practical introduction to data analysis while reinforcing content covered in lecture. Daily computer laboratory sessions will provide a "hands-on" practical experience learning basic statistical analyses. Credit if student is a candidate for the joint MD-MHS degree.

• Ethical and Practical Issues in Clinical Investigation: The purpose of this course is to address topics which are central to the conduct of clinical investigation, including ethics of clinical investigation, scientific fraud, technology transfer interacting with the pharmaceutical industry, issues in authorship and mentorship, scientific presentations and teaching, journal peer review process , NIH peer review process, commercialization of clinical and research discoveries (The Yale Experience), career development (Models of Academia) and career opportunities in industry. Credit if student is a candidate for the joint MD-MHS degree.

• Organization and Leadership- This course is designed to enhance students' ability to develop leadership skills throughout their career. Through these sessions students will: develop the capacity to generate alternative explanations for organizational events by shifting from individual and interpersonal to group, intergroup and organizational levels of analysis; learn a set of behavioral science concepts that can aid both diagnosis and intervention in organizations; practice the ability to describe, reflect on, analyze, conceptualize and construct courses of action for organizational challenges that physician investigators will increasingly face during their careers; and create an individual action plan for their careers and leadership skills development. Credit if student is a candidate for the joint MD-MHS degree.