The Iowa Scholars in Clinical Investigation (ISCI) Program is a two-year interdisciplinary program designed to prepare post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Pharmacy for careers in clinical research through the provision of a structured didactic curriculum in research methods and a mentored research experience.

Eligibility

Trainees eligible for the program include physicians (MD or DO), dentists (DDS or DMD), and doctorally prepared pharmacists (PharmD or PhD), nurses (PhD), and psychologists (PhD) who have the support of their department head to commit at least 70% of their time to participate in ISCI program activities.

Curriculum

A key focus of the ISCI has been the development and incremental refinement of a didactic curriculum specifically designed for clinical researchers that include two options:

• Master of Science in Clinical Investigation
• Certificate in Clinical Investigation

Both programs were developed in collaboration with the College of Public Health and provide core content in principles of epidemiology and biostatistics, as well as more specialized training in research ethics and clinical epidemiology.

Career Development. Other important elements in the curriculum include a new course in “research survival skills” that covers areas of critical importance to developing a successful career in clinical investigation, but that are not taught in traditional degree programs (e.g., identifying and choosing a mentor, navigating the IRB, principles of effective scientific writing).

Research Seminar. A further component of the ISCI curriculum is a bi-weekly Seminar in Clinical Research that allows Scholars to deliver “works-in-progress” presentations of their ongoing projects that are designed to provide constructive feedback to the presenting Scholar andteach principles of critical review by senior faculty. The Seminar also includes several sessions that are devoted to methodological journals clubs reviewing important topics in clinical research and mock study sections that are designed to develop fluency in proposal critique and to provide Scholars with an inside look at how NIH study sections function.

Mentored Research Experience

Many skills vital to success in clinical investigation are best taught to junior investigators through an apprenticeship model. Thus, the ISCI has devoted substantial effort to ensuring that trainees identify and work closely with one or more mentors with established track records in clinical research and in obtaining external funding.This process is facilitated by introducing Scholars to potential mentors, research centers, and other UI resources during the first summer of training and during the ongoing Research Seminar.

In addition, the ISCI directors meet with Scholars every four months to review their research progress and to ensure that Scholars are meeting regularly with their identified mentors.