Summer Mentoring and Research Training (SMART)

Summary/Abstract: University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) is driven to educate, train, and mentor academically oriented medical students who will pursue research and become future leaders in medicine. We believe that, “there is no science tomorrow without training today.” We believe that engaging medical students in research is of fundamental importance because: 1) it will enhance their ability to more critically evaluate the validity and efficacy of old and new emerging medical treatments; 2) ipso facto it will better equip them to fulfill their moral and ethical obligations to provide the best care for their patients; and 3) it will help uncover the “hidden gems” of medical students that will go on to pursue formal careers as physician-scientists. Therefore, in this NIDDK T35 application we propose to engage MD students in hands on research, mentoring, publishing, career development, and leadership in our Summer Mentored Research Training Program (SMART DDK). Through our expertise in a multidisciplinary “cells to society” approach, we aim to enhance the diversity and availability of physician scientists to meet the existent and evolving global challenges for improving health by the following specific aims: 1) providing outstanding leadership and a rigorous process of trainee-mentor alignment; 2) creating a flexible and innovative curriculum that emphasizes both core competencies and advanced concepts in NIDDK related research; and 3) maximizing access to the training program. These three specific aims will emphasize the importance of: 1) Claude Bernard’s “scientific medicine;” 2) Sir Issac Newtons sentiment of “standing on the shoulder of giants;” and 3) mentoring as reflected by perspective that the quality of science tomorrow is determined by the training quality of today. Within this context, our trainees will participate in a Trainee-Mentor Alignment Phase where they will identify a primary mentor, construct an individual development plan (IDP), and develop a research proposal. The oversight of trainee-mentor alignment, research proposal, and IDP will occur at regular intervals via formal presentations by the trainee to the Program Directors, Administrator, and mentor. Additionally, trainees will participate in formal courses, workshops, journal clubs, and grand rounds to develop a deeper appreciation for issues related to innovation, foundations of research, and cutting-edge technologies relevant to the realm of NIDDK related research. Issues related to the responsible conduct of research and reproducibility will be interwoven throughout all didactic components of the program. In addition to providing guidance to our trainees during their MS1 year, we will also continue to longitudinally follow their progress and engage the students in research during MS2- MS4 years via our medical student research program.