T32 Program Coursework

All trainees are required to take the Summer Clinical Research Workshop run by the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics located at UCSF’s China Basin Campus. The Summer Clinical Research Workshop includes three courses that are the starting point for all clinical research training at UCSF. The Workshop introduces the language of clinical research and provides detailed instruction in the most integral component of a clinical investigation; a written protocol that is scientifically sound, ethically appropriate, and competitive for funding. The course aims to train clinical scientists in the skills needed to:

The Workshop provides an introduction to the world of clinical research that is structured around individualized written products that trainees will find useful; a 5-page protocol for an actual study, a resolution of ethical issues in that study, and a career plan. For individuals who will participate in clinical research in a supportive capacity, the Workshop alone is sufficient training. For others desiring to be independent investigators, the Workshop serves as introductory material for the more advanced ATCR Certificate and Master's Degree in Clinical Research Program (note: UCSF faculty, fellows, students may take most TICR courseson an individual basis).

All trainees are required to take a course in advanced grant writing. The recommended course is the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Advanced Course in Grant Writing. The purpose of this course is to assist participants to prepare and submit a quality grant application to the NIH, NSF, or other equivalent institution by the October NIH deadline. The Advanced Course consists of 4 multi-day sessions spanning a 9-month period, held at RSNA Headquarters in Oak Brook, IL. Course sessions are generally held in September, October, April, and June. The eligibility of program trainees to undertake this course has been confirmed with the RSNA Department of Research. 

An alternative course is the Writing a Competitive Grant Proposal Workshop organized by the Radiological Society of North America. This course is run by leading researchers with extensive experience in all aspects of grant applications and funding. Participants will be provided with valuable tools necessary for actively pursuing federal funding. This intermediate grant writing program is intended for junior faculty and researchers in radiology, radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, and imaging sciences.

https://www.rsna.org/education/workshops/writing-a-competitive-grant-proposal

The T32 program also recommends the National Institute of Health (NIH) Regional Seminars on Program Funding and Grants Administration workshop sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Extramural Research. The NIH Regional Seminar involves approximately 35 NIH and HHS staff who are brought to a central location in order to educate, share, and listen to attendees over the course of two days. This seminar is an excellent opportunity for our T32 fellows to make direct contact with NIH policy officials, grants management, program and review staff, eRA Commons experts, as well as representatives from the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), and Office of Research Integrity (ORI). This seminar targets new and early stage investigators, researchers, graduate students, and anyone interested in the grants administration process and offers important networking opportunities for our T32 fellows.

https://grants.nih.gov/news/contact-in-person/seminars.htm

This course is a second course in statistics that supplements the preliminary course taken as part of the Summer Clinical Research Workshop. The advanced course covers multi-predictor methods, including exploratory data analysis, multiple regression (linear and logistic), survival analysis and repeated measures analysis. Emphasis is the practical and proper use of statistical methodology and its interpretation. At the end of the course, students will be able to describe the roles of descriptive versus inferential statistics, identify characteristics of the problem to help choose the appropriate analytic technique, describe techniques appropriate for handling a single outcome variable and multiple predictors, and outline data limitations and their consequences.

This intensive 6 day workshop will train radiology, radiation oncology, and nuclear medicine faculty, fellows, and residents past their 3rd year in the development of protocols for the clinical evaluations of imaging modalities. The participant will undergo a competitive application and selection process, advance preparation, didactic sessions, one-on-one mentoring, small discussion sessions, self study, and protocol synthesis process. Topics covered during the course will include principles of clinical study design, statistical methods for imaging studies, design and conduct of multi-institutional studies, and regulatory processes. Each workshop trainee will be expected to develop a protocol for a clinical study, ready for inclusion in a grant application for external funding.

https://www.rsna.org/education/workshops/clinical-trials-methodology-workshop