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SUMMARY OF ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS FROM SPEAKERS 11 The amount of paperwork involved in applying for the NRSA fellowship far exceeds that required for any other postdoctoral fellowship. Suggestions From Speakers Numerous suggestions were offered, which included treatment of the following topics: Individual Awards ⢠Examine the issue of whether a cap should be placed on the number of individual NRSA fellows per lab. Access ⢠Increase the flexibility and access to programs throughout the country and in a wide variety of institutions. Curriculum ⢠Train Ph.D. scientists who know basic science and have awareness of clinical problems and an ability to work with physicians as well as basic âwet labâ skills. Include training in patient-oriented outcomes research and research at the interface between laboratory discoveries and clinical applications. ⢠Provide a broad-based and interdisciplinary curriculum, including a solid background in general biochemistry and molecular biology rather than a focused program such as biotechnology which can be obsolete before the degree is awarded. ⢠Emphasize interdisciplinary approaches that pair the biomedical sciences with chemistry, engineering, and computer science as well as patient-oriented clinical research, clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, outcomes research, and health services research. Examples of interdisciplinary researchers are demographers and sociologists trained in aging research; epidemiologists with a background in economics; psychologists interacting with engineers to help frail older adults live independently at home; and neuroscientists, who consistently utilize knowledge and techniques in several disciplines including neuroanatomy, physiology, neurochemistry, and molecular genetics. Periodically establish new training grants in cross-disciplinary interfaces. ⢠Both pre- and postdoctoral students should complete courses in experimental design, statistical analysis, grant writing, oral scientific communications, and public science policy. They should also be exposed to grant accounting, management, and a minimal amount of teaching experience. Collaboration ⢠Develop team research and multi-university relationships. ⢠Establish training programs that are jointly sponsored by academic institutions and industry. Review ⢠Use the NRSA annual progress report as a basis for evaluating productivity and continued financial support. ⢠Develop criteria for measuring the effectiveness of mentors and training programs. Administration ⢠Streamline guidelines. NIH and subspecialty boards should come to a better understanding of their aims so that together they can provide a meaningful national program for training biomedical researchers who can participate in both clinical and basic research. ⢠Streamline the paperwork involved in applying for a fellowship. ⢠Maintain the non-trainee expenses allocated to predoctoral training grants for such activities as a graduate program seminar series and research day retreats.
SUMMARY OF ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS FROM SPEAKERS 12 ⢠Have yearly national meetings of individual NRSA recipients. ⢠Restructure NRSA programs to encourage a full or modified Ph.D. training program for physicians. This brief summary captures only a few elements of the rich set of ideas submitted by speakers at the 1993 public hearing. Readers are encouraged to review the individual testimony in Appendix D for a fuller view of specific suggestions.
