Infectious Disease/Immunology Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (ID/IMM StARR) Program at Washington University

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section Due to their clinical and research training and expertise, physician-scientists are poised to provide new unique insights into disease, ultimately leading to advances in treatments but there is shortage of physician-investigators. While combined MD-PhD programs have helped address this shortage, there are substantially more physicians without PhD degrees graduating from medical schools who form a substantial pool of potential investigators to overcome this shortage. Physician-scientists are especially needed to explore infectious diseases and immune-related diseases to derive new therapeutic advances. Here, the applicant and his team propose to meet this challenge by focusing on non-PhD physicians with a new R38 Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR) Program in Infectious Disease and Immunology research (ID/IMM StARR) at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). The ID/IMM StARR Program is designed to provide protected time for mentored research, didactic training, and career development that will allow residents to fulfill board requirements and take advantage of the robust environment at WUSM for physician-scientist training and in ID/IMM research. The Specific Aims are to: 1) Provide Dermatology, Medicine, Neurology, Pathology and Pediatric residents high quality, competency based, rigorous training in basic or clinical/translational ID/IMM research; 2) Provide 1-2 years of mentored research training, didactic training and other scientific enrichment activities, and Individual Development Plans for career development to ensure the success of residents in the StARR Program through close interaction with outstanding scientific mentors, career advisory committees and program directors; 3) Expand the number of well-trained residents ultimately performing research, and pursuing subspecialty fellowships to become independent research faculty in infectious disease and immunology; and 4) Perform robust evaluation and tracking to demonstrate the impact of the StARR Program. Thus, R38 residents will be well-prepared for an ultimate career as independent investigators in ID/IMM research.