CLEVELAND, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $14 million grant to a consortium of Cleveland educators and health care providers to create a new program to train the next generation of clinical research leaders. The new program is intended to become a national model for re-engineering the nation’s clinical research environment and workforce. It is part of the NIH’s new “strategic road map” of priorities designed to optimize medical research efforts nationwide.
The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University will administer the five-year grant, which is being developed collaboratively with Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, MetroHealth Medical Center, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The grant will support development of the Case/Cleveland Clinic Multidisciplinary Research Training Program, which will provide advanced training to post-doctoral clinical research scholars. More than 100 of Cleveland’s most prominent clinical investigators worked as a cohesive team for over six months to prepare a joint application with the NIH to fund the new training program.
“Our clinical research scholars will complete their training programs with the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct cutting-edge research and lead teams of investigators who recognize the need to integrate their efforts to produce the best outcomes,” said Richard Rudick, M.D., chairman of the Division of Clinical Research at The Cleveland Clinic and the new program’s director. “With this program, we have the power to attract and retain clinical researchers who will drive the translation of scientific discoveries into better diagnostics and therapeutics that ultimately will benefit patients and their families.”
Pedro Delgado, M.D., chair and the Bond professor of psychiatry at Case and University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Randall Cebul, M.D., professor of medicine and the director of the Center for Health Care Research and Policy at Case and MetroHealth, will be the program’s associate directors.
The Cleveland program will admit 25 students, recruiting the best clinical research scholars in the nation. The scholars, who already will have earned doctoral or medical degrees, will represent diverse professional backgrounds and varied research topics related to health and disease. The program will emphasize multidisciplinary team-based research to tackle the nation’s most complex and important health problems.
“One of the great things about this application is its collaborative nature,” said Edward Hundert, M.D., president of Case Western Reserve University. “The NIH review committee was so impressed to find The Cleveland Clinic, the Case School of Medicine, University Hospitals, MetroHealth Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center all working together on the application that they gave us a priority score among the best I’ve ever seen. This really is a cooperative effort.”
The Cleveland institutions are among a select group of medical institutions the NIH has designated to launch clinical research programs that will train highly specialized researchers to fuel the nation’s future clinical researcher workforce. The clinical research training program will use case- based learning methods, similar to those applied by the new Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Likewise, the program’s mentor initiatives will mirror those used within the Case Weatherhead School of Management, allowing all scholars to have at least two mentors to support them in their research projects.
“This is an extraordinary and innovative step on the part of the NIH to provide support for new pathways for training clinical investigators,” said Ralph Horwitz, M.D., dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. “Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the NIH, deserves enormous credit for the way in which he’s brought this (clinical research training program) into the NIH repertories of grant support.”
About The Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for- profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. The Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names The Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Approximately 1,200 full-time salaried physicians at The Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2003, patients came for treatment from every state and from nearly 90 countries. The Cleveland Clinic website address is http://www.clevelandclinic.org/ .
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation’s leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences. The Commission on Presidential Debates selected Case to host the U.S. vice presidential debate on October 5, 2004. http://www.case.edu/ .
About University Hospitals of Cleveland
University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) is the primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University (Case). Together, they form the largest center for biomedical research in the State of Ohio. Included in UHC are Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, among the nation’s best children’s hospitals; Ireland Cancer Center, designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center (the nation’s highest designation); and MacDonald Women’s Hospital, Ohio’s only hospital for women. For more information, go to http://www.uhhs.com/ .
About The MetroHealth System
The MetroHealth System is one of the nation’s largest and most successful public health care providers, offering health care for the most critically injured trauma victim to skilled nursing care for the chronically ill. Affiliated with Case Western Reserve University since 1914, MetroHealth continues its long-standing teaching reputation and research excellence, offering vital training and research opportunities for students and physicians. MetroHealth conducts cutting-edge research in biomedical sciences, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart, liver and kidney research. For more information, visit us at http://www.metrohealth.org/ .
About the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center consists of inpatient facilities located in Cleveland (Wade Park) and Brecksville, Ohio. The Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC also has Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Akron, Canton, Cleveland (McCafferty), East Liverpool, Lorain, Mansfield, New Philadelphia, Painesville, Ravenna, Sandusky, Warren, and Youngstown, Ohio. The combined facilities of the medical center serve more than 82,000 veterans each year, with a total of nearly 800,000 outpatient visits annually. The medical center employs approximately 3,000 people, and assists in the training of nearly 1,000 students, interns and residents annually in healthcare fields.
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
CONTACT: Raquel Santiago of Cleveland Clinic, +1-216-444-4235; or GeorgeStamatis of Case Western Reserve University, +1-216-368-3635
