The Masters of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) is a 2 year, part-time program that provides an exceptional educational experience to outstanding health professionals, such as clinical / post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty, veterinarians, nurse PhDs, allied health professionals, and other trainees (MD, MD/PhD, and 'basic science' PhD students) with the knowledge, skills, and experience to successfully launch clinical and/or translational research-intensive careers. The MSCR has two main components: 1) graduate courses including biostatistics, epidemiology, research design, data analysis, and grant writing, and 2) a mentored clinical research project leading to a Masters thesis. The program is designed to be completed in 2 years. However, coursework can be taken over a longer period of time.

The PhD program is designed for those outstanding candidates who are health professionals that desire a more intense educational experience for those who desire a PhD to help to prepare them for a career in clinical or translational research. The program provides a strong didactic foundation combined with a mentored clinical research experience leading to a doctoral degree in Clinical Research.

The Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) is the more modest, 1 year, part-time certificate version of the MSCR program which includes the core of class work without the Masters thesis requirement and 2nd year research seminars.

To provide training in patient-oriented clinical and translational research (didactic and experiential) to fellows, junior faculty, and other allied health professionals who hold a professional doctoral level degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy or other relevant professional fields. The program is also open to MD/PhD or PhD students or postdoctoral fellows already engaged in basic science research whose goal is to pursue more translational research training.

Patient-oriented research is defined as research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator directly interacts with human subjects. Patient-oriented research includes study of basic mechanisms of human disease, GCRC-based pathophysiologic studies, therapeutic interventions, clinical trials, behavioral studies, epidemiology, outcomes and health service research.

Core competencies include:

• Understanding major clinical, translational, and public health research problems
• Observational and experimental clinical research methods and study designs
• Measurement and methodological issues in incorporating basic science, translational, clinical, and population variables into clinical research
• Data analysis and management
• Written and oral scientific communication and dissemination skills
• Research ethics