TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION: "Discovering the Clinical Research Training Program"

Episode #3
Uploaded: October 18, 2010
Running time: 05:45

HILL: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland: Hello, and welcome to this episode in the “Training the Next Generation" Podcast Series which explores how we are cultivating clinical and translational researchers who examine today's problems and find tomorrow's cures.

I'm Virginia Hill, and today, I'm going to speak with two 2010 graduates of the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP). Marc Heikens has a 5 year history of working in research labs and a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. He's currently enrolled in medical school at Case Western Reserve University, and he's interested in primary care and primary care research in an effort to keep people out of the hospital in the first place. We also have Berenice Nava, a native of Veracruz, Mexico who started her career as a registered nurse. Her work led her to pursue a more direct role in addressing health inequalities, and she is currently enrolled in medical school in the Drew Program of the University of California Los Angeles. And last but not least, we have Kenny Williams, who is the educational program coordinator for the CRTP. Hello, and thank you all for joining us today. Kenny, why don't we start with you? Can you give us an overview of the program?

WILLIAMS: The Clinical Research Training Program is an opportunity for medical and dental students who are interested in taking a year off to come to the NIH and pursue translational research in their areas of interest over the course of an academic year, doing work very closely with mentors, and receiving training throughout the year. It's a public-private partnership supported jointly by the NIH and Pfizer through a grant from the Foundation for the NIH.

HILL: So, Marc and Berenice, why did you consider taking a year off and participate in the CRTP?

HEIKENS: As you said in the introduction, I have experience doing basic science research in laboratories for several years, in and out of college and before medical school. And then I got into medical school, and I was working with patients, and I realized that, wow, I actually really like working with people! So is there a way that I could potentially put those two together?

NAVA: Initially, I had also been exposed to basic science research, just like Marc. However, when I started medical school, definitely my first and second year, that made me realize the importance of basic science research as well as clinical research. But my third year was definitely the one year where I realized that in order for me to be the best physician that I could be, that I would really need to not only know that clinical research is important, but to be able to learn about it. And I think that the best way, the only way, that you can learn about it is by actually doing it. I really felt that this was the best way that I could actually spend a year in learning clinical research would be coming out to basically the world's hospital, caring for patients who are all enrolled in a protocol, coming out to the NIH and learning from people who do research day and night, both basic science as well as clinical research.

HILL: And how has your experience in the CRTP impacted your decisions about your career?

HEIKENS: This year has really solidified my notions of what it means to do research, and clinical research specifically. I think that it's one thing to think, “Oh, I'd like to do that. I'd like to try that." And it's another thing to go through it, and help write a protocol, recruit your own patients, work with those patients, write up the results, present the results in multiple different formats. It really helps; it has shown me that not only is it something that's possible, it's something that, while it's not easy, it's definitely doable.

HILL: After this year of experience in the CRTP, would you recommend this type of opportunity to other medical students or dental students?d

NAVA: Absolutely. I can't say or stress it enough. I've actually emailed my classmates and mentioned to them the great opportunity. And you know, one of the things people always ask and I think they contemplate over is taking a year off. Medical school is four years, and now here I am doing an extra year, so it's going to be five years. Not to mention that I had a career before actually pursuing medical school, so for me it's a lot more than those five years I'm looking at. But at the end, we'll all be 50, we'll all be physicians, and one extra year is not going to make a difference. If anything, I think the one year that I've spent here has contributed much more, in terms of opportunities that I will have in the future, than my other three/four years in medical school back at UCLA.

HEIKENS: Yeah, I agree completely. It's funny; Mr. Williams mentioned that it's a year off doing research. But it was emphasized by a lot of people, it's actually a year out. It's not a year off; we're all doing a lot of work. There's research opportunities, there's Journal Club opportunities, there's all these opportunities to learn so much about whatever field you want to pursue.

HILL: Thank you again for joining us today Marc, Berenice, and Kenny. It's exciting to hear how impactful the CRTP has been on your careers. And thank YOU for listening to this episode of “Training the Next Generation." For more information on opportunities supported by the Clinical Center's Office of Clinical Research Training and Medical Education, visit www.cc.nih.gov/training. Until next time, we look forward to working with YOU to make tomorrow's cures a reality.

I'm Virginia Hill from the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.