Clinician Research Education and Scientific Training (CREST) Program

About This Grant

The Clinician Research Education and Scientific Training (CREST) MSTP will rigorously train MD/PhD students in laboratory, clinical, translational, and community research to ensure their development into successful, independent clinician-scientists. This new MSTP will build on the strong foundation established by the current institutionally-supported MD/PhD program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and its affiliated Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) to uniquely address the need for clinician-scientists in Arkansas and the neighboring IDeA states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. This would be the only MSTP in a geographically isolated desert of 4 contiguous rural IDeA states, all of which have some of the worst health outcomes in the country. CREST will focus recruitment of top applicants from the mid-South region and also leverage a statewide pool of candidates from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UAF) and 17 primarily undergraduate universities already linked with programs at UAMS/ACRI through the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). Recognizing we are at a critical inflection point in training clinician- scientists in Arkansas and the surrounding states, UAMS recently established a new Office of Clinician-Scientist Development (OCSD). The OCSD will facilitate coordination between the CREST Program, existing T32 training programs, our Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) and its affiliated Translational Research Institute (TRI), and other UAMS/ACRI IDeA programs, including multiple Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBREs), and the strong population health research programs at UAMS/ACRI and UAF. This central coordination will promote synergies between programs to enhance opportunities for CREST students to pursue broad areas of biomedical research to address healthcare needs unique to the mid-South region. UAMS will provide critical institutional support to ensure full tuition, health insurance supplements, and stipend support for every MD/PhD student in every year of both the MD and PhD phases of training. We are requesting 4 MSTP slots per year in years 1-2, and 2 additional slots beginning in year 3 for a steady state of 10 funded slots, with matching institutional support for a total program size of 32 MSTP students. CREST leadership will utilize a multi- PI (MPI) approach that includes highly successful and complementary investigators well-versed in MD/PhD training. CREST mentoring will include an individualized Scholarship Oversight Committee and near-peer mentoring to support CREST students and ensure seamless integration of the MD and PhD phases of training. Mentoring will purposefully continue for 4 years after completion of the Program to ensure the development of CREST students as independent clinician-scientists. CREST will capitalize on established infrastructure to build a nationally recognized MSTP to train and promote retention of clinician-scientists in Arkansas and surrounding IDeA states, including incentivizing the return of graduates following residency and fellowship training. These clinician-scientists will change the paradigm in a region with particularly poor healthcare outcomes.