Interdisciplinary Training in Injury and Critical Illness

Project Summary Over 25 million people per year are treated emergently for injuries and more than 5 million people are admitted annually for critical illness. This Interdisciplinary Training in Injury and Critical Illness will help contribute to the next generation of trauma surgeon-scientists who can tackle the basic, translational, and clinical aspects of research spanning the bench to bedside. This research will center on the broad-expertise of our 16 Scientific Mentors covering the domains 1) Injury and 2) Critical Illness. Interdisciplinary participating faculty have extensive collaborations with each other and hail from the 6 Departments (Surgery, Orthopedics, Plastics, Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Engineering). Vanderbilt is at the nexus of 70,000 miles of injured and critically ill patients with annual trauma evaluations exceeding 6,000/year, offering robust opportunities for primary and secondary analysis of prospective clinical cohort and multicenter clinical trial data, as well as translational approaches to important aspects of injury and critical illness (e.g., lung injury, peripheral nerve injury, orthopedic trauma, sepsis, burns, cognitive impairment). Dr. Mayur B. Patel, a previous post-doctoral T32 trainee, now established academic trauma surgeon-scientist, will lead this T32 program as Program Director to develop the next generation of future surgeon-scientists. Scientific Mentors who serve as primary mentors for T32-funded trainees hold secondary appointments in multiple basic science and clinical departments and associated research centers. The proposed T32 training program will commence after a national search for high-performing candidates, who have completed a minimal of two years of surgical training (or equivalent clinical or post-doctoral experience), and ultimately support up to one new post-doctoral trainees per year. Two years of dedicated research training will be required for all trainees. To maximize scientific career development potential, our training program offers the rigorous opportunity to earn additional graduate training (e.g., Master of Public Health, Master of Clinical Investigation).