Student Urinary Tract Program in Education and Research (SUPER) Summer Training Program

ABSTRACT There are an estimated 50 million Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and the care provided to people with CKD and end stage kidney disease exceeds $114 billion annually. Despite these numbers, recent data indicates that there is a significant workforce shortage in the field of nephrology and urology and the total number of grants submitted to the NIH focused on kidney and urologic diseases and disorders has decreased over the past decade. This dichotomy creates a significant need to reverse the current trends and increase the number of trainees interested in pursuing a career in nephrology and urology that includes an NIDDK-related research focus. To begin to address these important issues, we propose to create a predoctoral student research program that combines the educational, clinical, and translational research expertise at The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The long-term goal of this program is to increase and diversify the number of physician-scientists and basic-scientists submitting grant applications to the NIDDK in the fields of pediatric nephrology and urology. To accomplish this goal, we propose the development of a new Student Urinary Tract Program in Education and Research (SUPER) Summer Training Program for graduate and medical students. This program will expand established research programs and partner with local resources to create new educational and research experiences promoting the understanding of kidney and urinary tract diseases. We strongly believe that creating this innovative and well-structured summer research program focused on nephrology and urology related topics will capture predoctoral student interest early in their career development - thereby increasing the potential workforce population and creating the next generation of NIDDK-research focused clinicians and scientists.