Objectives | Description | Logistics | Contact Information

Goals
This elective will place a student on the investigative team of an established clinical investigator who is a user of the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) for the patient-oriented portion of an organized research protocol. Students will be encouraged to become involved in all aspects of the project. This will include review of the written GCRC protocol, subject recruitment, sample collection and processing, laboratory determinations, data collection, data analysis and interpretation. This elective will expose a student to some important aspects of an academic career with a clinical research component to help that student make career decisions that may involve patient-oriented research.

Objectives
1. The student will participate in the recruitment, evaluation, data collection, analysis and/or interpretation during the investigation of subjects, related to an active GCRC research protocol.
2. The student will describe the steps in developing a clinical research protocol with use of the GCRC facilities.
3. The student will discuss how to recruit and obtain informed consent of the study subjects.
4. The student will discuss the function of the investigator laboratory which supports the clinical studies.

Description of the activities of the course
1. Students must identify a GCRC investigator with whom to work and make arrangements with that investigator sufficiently in advance so that the activities of the elective are ready to start at the beginning of the period.
2. Students will be expected to be directly involved in the recruitment, evaluation, and investigation of subjects while they are housed on the GCRC.
3. Students will be expected to have direct involvement in the laboratory part of the subject studies.
4. Students will be expected to be involved in the data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
5. Students are expected to become familiar with the literature as pertinent to the investigative question.

Types of students who would benefit from the course
1. Individuals with an interest in patient based research.
2. Students considering an academic career in a clinical department.

Method of student evaluation
Students are evaluated by the faculty mentor at the end of the rotation.