Primary Care Research Fellowship Brochure

RATIONALE

Primary care in United States needs strengthening. The Future of Family Medicine Report emphasizes the need for research that supports the clinical decision making of family physicians and other primary care clinicians. To achieve this agenda, we must have family physicians who can conduct research, teach, and disseminate expertise in these areas. Family & Community Medicine Faculty must become knowledgeable about how primary care is organized, factors that promote and impede the achievement of accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and integrated care, the causes of health disparities, and the relationship of primary care processes to health outcomes.

To address this need, in 2001 we developed a Primary Care Research Fellowship that is a collaborative effort between the School of Medicine's Department of Family &Community Medicine and Johns Hopkins' Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Our overall goals are to recruit high-quality candidates and provide them with skills to become independent primary care clinician-investigators focused on improving the health of underserved populations.

We prepare trainees to be active learners throughout their careers, to serve as mentors and collaborators and, ultimately, to influence the effectiveness of primary care in promoting health and decreasing health disparities. Additionally, we aim to prepare fellows to be culturally competent members of the academic workforce. By training such applicants and guiding them to positions that will foster their continued development as primary care researchers, we will help assure that academic faculty reflect the diverse populations served by primary care.

KEY EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES OF FELLOWSHIP

• One-on-one interaction with mentors
• Formal coursework leading to a Master in Public Health Degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Research seminar series
• Grant writing course
• Participation in regional and national professional meetings
• Participation in on-going community-based studies
• Conduct of an independent research project as principal investigator including formulation of the research question, preparation of a research proposal, study execution, presentation of findings at regional and national meetings and submission of at least one manuscript during fellowship
• Leadership role as a teacher in large didactic sessions, small group discussions and resident and medical student precepting
• Patient care (10-30%, depending on MPH coursework)

CORE FACULTY

University of Maryland School of Medicine
Beth Barnet, M.D.
Program Director
Research Interests: Adolescent pregnancy, Adolescent health, Community-based Intervention Research, Behavior Change, Depression in Women and Adolescents, Health Services Research

Olivia Carter-Pokras, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Research Interests: Health Disparities, Hispanic health issues, Cultural Competence, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Mark Macek, D.D.S., Dr.P.H.
Associate Professor, Program in Health Services Research, UMB Dental School
Research Interests: Access to care and utilization of services, Dental caries surveillance, Oral health disparities

Johns Hopkins Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Anne Duggan, Sc.D.
Program Director
Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy and Management
Research Interests: Program Evaluation, Home visiting, Services Integration, Health Services Research

Janet Serwint, M.D.
Program Co-Director
Professor of Pediatrics
Research Interests: Resident Education, Clinical Prevention Communication, Practice Based Research Networks

Tina Cheng, M.D., M.P.H.
Chief, Division of General Pediatrics
Research Interests: Violence prevention, adolescent parenting, Health disparities

Peter Rowe, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Research Interests: General Academic Pediatrics, Clinical Decision-making, Chronic Fatigue

TRAINEE BENEFITS

• Tuition and fees for Johns Hopkins M.P.H. (~$39,000)
• Book subsidy
• Stipend and health benefits
• Potential salary supplementation for clinical activities
• Personal laptop computer
• Travel funds
• Statistician for research support

ELIGIBILITY

The program is open to board-certified or board-eligible family physicians. An applicant must be a citizen of the United States, a non-citizen national or a foreign national holding a visa permitting permanent residence in the United States. Potential fellows must also have a valid and unrestricted license to practice medicine in the State of Maryland. Fellows must meet entrance requirements for the Masters of Public Health Program of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

HOW TO APPLY

Application forms can be downloaded (MSWord or PDF). Completed application forms should be mailed or e-mailed to the Program Director. Letters of reference should be mailed to the Program Director per application form instructions. In general, the Fellowship Year begins on or about July 1. Individual start dates may be negotiated. Preference will be given to applications received prior to January 31 of the year the applicant is seeking to begin.

Send applications to:
Beth Barnet, M.D.
Program Director, Primary Care Research Fellowship
University of Maryland Department of Family & Community Medicine
29 S. Paca Street
Baltimore, MD 21201