"Research Initiative for Scholar Diversity to Uphold Veteran Health"

Veterans Health Administration, Decatur PA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Project Summary Creating and supporting a diverse, inclusive workforce leads to increases in productivity and innovation. Further, when providing service to patients, a diverse and inclusive environment provides patients with improved care. This application requests funding for 5 years to continue our summer research program (SRP) at the Tennessee Valley Health System (TVHS). Our summer program the “Research Initiative for Scholar DivErsity to UPhold Veterans’ Health” (RISE-UP) has several goals. A primary goal of the program is to provide opportunities for scholars from diverse backgrounds, which are underrepresented in biomedical research, to perform research under the guidance of VA-funded scientists or physician scientists. TVHS has a rich history of funding from the Office of Research and Development and the infrastructure to support this endeavor – as we are entering our third year of funding for a pilot summer program which, so far, has provided 2 students with 2 summers of research experience and 9 students with 1 summer of research experience. Several students from our first cohort have already matriculated in graduate school or medical school (4). Moving forward, we propose to bring 8 scholars in per year for the next 5 years. The leadership of this program (Dr. Holly Algood, Dr. Adriana Hung and Mr. Mark Lynch) at TVHS have been working with the ORD and programs around the country to identify best practices for these SRPs. Our summer programing is designed to educate the scholars on the importance of the VA’s mission to provide top notch medical care and opportunities for research and to enhance the scholars’ applications to graduate education and/or research positions. To meet these goals, the full-time research experience is supported by clinical observations, workshops and discussions which enhance the scholar’s skills in responsible conduct in research, rigor, and reproducibility, science communication and career development. Success will be measured by short- and long-term outcomes including scientific productivity (abstracts, authorship), retention in scientific fields, matriculation to graduate school and/or medical school, and long-term relationship with the Department of Veterans Affairs.