Curriculum

The program’s goals are to:

  1. Provide a tailored curriculum integrating biological, medical, epidemiologic, behavioral, and community perspectives in CPC research in priority populations
  2. Promote interdisciplinary approaches to CPC research
  3. Foster multidisciplinary research careers in CPC among trainees through mentored research

The program will focus on several core curricular competencies:

  1. Familiarity with Basic Concepts in Medical Oncology
  2. Understanding of Priority Population Health Issues
  3. Multidisciplinary CPC Research
  4. Expertise in Specific CPC Research Areas
  5. Developing Research Questions and Grounding Research in a Theoretical Framework
  6. Understanding of Research Study Design
  7. Data Analysis
  8. Research and Study Management
  9. Research Ethics and Human Subjects Protections
  10. Presentation of Research Data
  11. Career Advancement Skills

Areas of Research Focus include:

  • Behavioral Research
  • Comparative Effectiveness
  • Disparities Interventions
  • End of Life and Palliative Care
  • Molecular and Environmental Epidemiology

Clinical Responsibilities: Clinical fellows will have the opportunity to spend up to 20% of their time in their respective areas of expertise.

Teaching Responsibilities: There will be no formal teaching responsibilities, though opportunities for research-related teaching that are consistent with the objectives of the fellowship will be available to interested fellows.

Fellows may pursue their degree in Masters in Clinical Research which emphasizes skills development for the study of clinical outcomes and health services. Fellows join trainees from other medical specialties and affiliated health sciences for courses in basic and advanced clinical epidemiology and biostatistics; health services research, medical ethics, and others.

Candidates may tailor the curriculum to their specific research or education interests by selecting among the various elective courses offered through the Graduate School. Coursework may be applied to a Masters in Clinical Research degree granted by the Icahn School of Medicine. For more information regarding the degree program, visit the MS in Clinical Research.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8am-12pm Clinical care (if applicable) Research Research Divisional grand rounds 8:30am-9:30am Journal Club 8am-9am
12pm-1pm Works in Progress Meeting Meeting  with fellowship director Research Research
1pm-4pm Research Research Research Research Clinical care (if applicable)
5pm-7pm Coursework Coursework   Coursework  

  • Multidisciplinary Works in Progress Lunches (Tuesdays biweekly at noon): These lunches between faculty researchers and fellows allow fellows an opportunity to hear about clinical research projects and proposals that are taking place within the division. These lunches are also attended by clinical researchers from other divisions within the Department of Medicine. These lunches also allow fellows to identify potential research projects and mentors.
  • Divisional Grand Rounds (Thursdays weekly at 8:30am): This is a weekly conference for the Division of Hematology and Oncology or the Division of General Internal Medicine.  Fellows will be expected to attend either one of the divisional grand rounds. A variety of topics including clinical research as well as clinical updates are presented by expert speakers from Mount Sinai and other institutions.
  • Fellowship Director’s Meeting (monthly): This is a 1-on-1 monthly to bimonthly meeting with the fellowship director to individually discuss each fellow’s progress. Topics discussed range from coursework, research projects, mentorship, teaching portfolio, clinical care issues (when applicable), career goals and job opportunities.  
  • Journal Club (monthly): This is a monthly conference with other fellows facilitated by one of the fellowship leaders where a fellow presents and leads a discussion about a chosen article. Topics discussed often center on methodology, results interpretation and implications.
  • Career Development Meeting (monthly): This monthly conference with other fellows facilitated by one of the fellowship leaders to discuss topics related to research career development. Topics range from negotiation skills, resilience, mentoring skills, time management, and career goals.

  • Scientific Writing Workshops: Fellows will be required to participate in the established writing workshop at Mount Sinai led by Dr. Swan, Associate Director for Writing in Science at Princeton University. Fellows may also enroll in the course, Lessons in Scientific Publishing, which teaches use of library databases to identify relevant literature, organizing references, writing an effective literature review, style and formatting, manuscript submission and the peer review process, and getting work noticed for maximum impact.
  • Grant Writing Workshop: Fellows may participate in a 6-week interactive grant writing seminar that explains funding mechanisms and teaches how to write a grant proposal. The seminar focuses on: developing hypotheses; communicating the significance of the project; describing sufficient background information; discerning requirements for preliminary data; organizing experimental aims/research methods; delineating the innovative aspects of the proposal, including sufficient statistical methods, and preparing a budget. Participants are required to bring their grant proposal ideas to engage in interactive discussions and to write a grant proposal and the end of the seminar.
  • Leadership/managerial Workshops: Fellows may participate in an established leadership training program which includes personal coaching. Topics covered include personal and situational leadership, conflict resolution, unconscious bias, communication and influence, negotiation, personal conflict, selecting and working in a multidisciplinary research team, and business plan and budget development. Fellows may also participate in the Academic Career and Life Skills Program, a series of seminars that will cover communication and oral presentation skills, negotiating a job, preparing your biosketch, and life-work balance.