| In 1999, the Boston University Medical School received a T32 grant from NIH to establish a Clinical Research Training program, (CREST) to improve clinical (non-laboratory) research training for fellows in all disciplines, including medical subspecialties, surgery, and dentistry. The CREST program includes two components already a part of the Academic Fellowship Program: research methodologic courses at the BUSPH and supervised research under faculty preceptors. Faculty clinical investigators from across the medical campus discuss clinical research and methodology, citing examples from their own research and experience during a bimonthly noontime CREST seminar series attended by all fellows. CREST Seminars include topics such as issues in the use of human subjects, research ethics, grant writing, design of data collection forms, the Cochrane collaboration, and the assessment health status and quality of care. Fellows benefit both from the content of the presentations and from the interaction with faculty and trainees who are outside of primary care, but who use similar methods and confront similar issues in their research as do primary care researchers. |