NIH/Brown Medical School
T32 Research Training Fellowships
Didactics
Most Fellows participate in two to five hours of didactics per week. Didactic offerings are as follows:
A weekly research seminar series (Academic Fridays) is required for all the research training fellows from the various hospitals. The Brown T32 programs combine efforts to produce a comprehensive research seminar series each academic year. The seminar series is coordinated by representatives from each of the T32 programs. Three core seminars (research methods, grant related information and writing, and research ethics) are currently offered for all fellows. A special topics in statistics seminar is also offered. These seminars are described below:
Research Methods. These sessions cover basic concepts and principles of methodology in clinical research, as well as several “design by example” sessions. The didactic sessions cover such topics as: specific design issues in treatment research, measuring therapist adherence and competence, therapist effects, strategies for sample recruitment and retention, sample size and power determination, data management, basic computer methods for research management, and the uses of qualitative versus quantitative methods. The sessions also include presentation of sophisticated statistical techniques such as survival regression analyses and time varying covariate analyses. Several sessions are devoted to a "design by example series", in which different investigators present the design of one of their funded studies, and go over in detail the rationale for the basic design decisions. The design-by-example series are structured to include examples of clinical trials, naturalistic studies, and health services studies. In the Design by Example series, focus is on methodological issues related to grantsmanship (e.g., how the investigator adjusted methods in response to critiques, what goals were sacrificed to achieve a feasible design). The involvement of younger faculty in Design by Example sessions give fellows exposure to the experiences of those close to the fellows in their career paths. In the Analysis by Example series, a senior quantitative faculty member typically presents in collaboration with another faculty member on a difficult analytical problem. These seminars allow the teaching of the process of data analysis (the exchanges between investigator and statistical consultant) as well as the content of statistical methods with which the fellows may not be conversant. We have found that a combination of didactic and by-example sessions give fellows a better appreciation for how research methods are applied in a variety of clinical settings. The by-example sessions have typically received high ratings from the fellows.
- Assumptions involved with regression analyses
- Distribution, skewness, outliers, curtosis and transforming variables
- Correlation coefficients, predicted scores, and residuals
- Variance: unique variance, shared variance
- Causal models and regression
- Bivariate correlation and regression
- Contrasts and interactions
- Forward and backward stepwise regression
- Statistical power and effect size calculations for multiple regression
Grant-Related Information. Consistent with the program’s emphasis on the importance of funded research, a number of sessions of the core seminar series are devoted to the logistics and mechanics of obtaining grants. These include an overview of types of NIH grant mechanisms, sources of non-Federal funding, the process of submitting a grant, the NIH review process, and an introduction to the basics of grant writing. Copies of NIH grant application forms are distributed, and each section reviewed. The NIH website is described, and instructions provided on how to access the CRISP database. Early sessions are more didactic, and begin with introductory information about various funding agencies. This is followed by a more detailed presentation of how NIMH is organized, and how the grants review process works. Instruction on how to complete each component of a PHS grant application, including the budget as well as the research protocol, is provided. Each step in preparing the grant is reviewed, including dealing with the Brown offices for Biomedical Research and the Office of Research Administration, and the local Institutional Review Boards.
Grant-writing seminar. Preparation of an individual grant proposal for submission to NIH or an appropriate foundation is strongly advised for all postdoctoral fellows in the T32/F32 program. Each trainee works one-on-one with his or her supervisor. Each T32 conducts a seminar in which each component of the fellow’s proposed research is reviewed and critiqued by the entire group of fellows, the grant-writing seminar leaders, and the fellow's individual faculty supervisors. Study aims, significance, preliminary studies, and methods of study are written section-by-section, and rewritten following the critiques. At the culmination of this experience, each fellow completes an entire. Faculty members with pertinent expertise are chosen to serve as primary reviewers of the grant. Written critiques are given to the fellow applicant at the completion of an oral review of the proposed study. Following the oral presentations, a discussion occurs where the fellow and the reviewers engage in dialogue directed at assisting the fellow in improving his/her application.
While fellows are not required to actually submit the grant application to the potential funding agency, most do so. Thus, most fellows have the opportunity to receive NIH IRG feedback on their completed research proposal. This often leads to a resubmission which, on occasion, results in funding that launches them on their independent research careers. However, for those who do not succeed at this final step, they are nevertheless well prepared to further develop and initiate new research grant applications when they again have the opportunity.
Ethical Issues in Psychiatric Research. This seminar series was developed for the T32 programs and refined over the last five years so that the most engaging presenters and formats for teaching ethical principles in scientific research are currently used. The sessions on ethics are interspersed with the sessions on research topics and methods, providing the opportunity to integrate the principles with real life examples. For example, the research methods sessions on sample recruitment and retention raise key issues regarding ethics, which are also addressed in the ethics sessions on safety monitoring/withdrawal, and ethical issues in subject recruitment. Case-based discussions are led by members of the training faculty, and occasionally by outside experts. A minimum of 14 different sessions are provided and required over the 2 years of training, with topics alternating every two years. Topics covered include: guidelines for authorship in supervised projects and other research collaboration; special issues associated with the use of minors in Human Subjects research, safety monitoring/withdrawal in clinical research projects, the use of placebos in research, informed consent and the IRB process, and ethical issues in recruitment, obtaining consent in cases of diminished capacity, definitions and examples of misconduct in science, and issues surrounding diversity in research.
Other Didactics:
The monthly, DPHB postdoctoral seminar sponsored by the Clinical Psychology Training Consortium is required for 1st year fellows with Ph.D.s in clinical psychology. Recognizing that some of the fellows will likely spend a percentage of their career involved in clinical practice, the topics in this seminar series focus on clinical practice such as: the licensure process, career development, supervising and mentoring, and other professional issues. Other topics include applying for an academic and job interviewing.
Postdoctoral fellows are encouraged to become familiar with other ongoing seminars and courses at Brown University and within the DPHB. There are also numerous other educational opportunities at various teaching hospitals and on campus.