Surgeon-Scientist Research Training in Injury Pathobiology and Outcomes In Critical Illness

Project Summary/Abstract The urgent need to refill the physician-scientist pipeline by training the next generation of physicians in basic and translational laboratory and applied clinical research has been widely recognized. A declining number of surgeon-scientists, however, threatens future advancement of surgical practice. The overall goal of this training

program is to train the next generation of surgeon-scientists, who have the knowledge, skillsets and motivation to perform translationally relevant and meaningful research that will lead to significant improvements in patient outcomes. Our training program seeks applications from surgery residents interested in a 2-year full-time

research training centered on injury pathobiology and outcomes in critical illness, a broad research arena essential for all surgical specialties. Each year, 1 trainee, who has typically completed 3-years of surgery residency, will be recruited primarily from a large pool of diverse and highly talented applicants for the general

surgery and the integrated vascular surgery residency programs in the Department of Surgery, Morsani College of Medicine at University of South Florida (USF). The central hub of our training program is the Division of Surgical Research (DSR) in the DOS. Experienced investigators in the DSR, alongside carefully selected

investigators from 5 other USF departments will form the training faculty. The training faculty is composed of 14 individuals who are committed to the research training of young surgeons, have an establish track record of extramural funding related to various aspects of injury pathobiology and outcomes in critical illness, and currently

hold more than 30 NIH/VA awards as principal investigators. Many of our training faculty are physician scientists, which provides our trainees with critical experience and knowledge in both medical and basic sciences. Based on the experience of the MPI/PDs as PIs of previous T32 training programs at other institutions, we propose an

optimized training plan to provide trainees with intensive state-of-the-art training in responsible conduct of rigorous and reproducible research that is guided by individual development plans. While trainees will select a scientific mentor of their choice, all trainees will be required to develop written research proposals and progress

reports, to give formal research presentations, to participate in seminars, journal clubs and in didactic course work in biomedical data analysis and responsible conduct of research. In addition, trainees will have the opportunity to obtain additional graduate degrees/certifications in health informatics or health care analytics. We

have the infrastructure, resources, expertise and motivation to provide our trainees with advanced and individualized research training in a vibrant scientific environment. We believe that our training program will ultimately provide the society with much needed surgeon-scientists, who will be at the forefront of clinical practice

in the future.