Polish Clinical Scholars Research Training

Polish Clinical Scholars Research Training is an immersive and rigorous training program that will expand skills and knowledge in clinical research methods. Exploring the latest advancements and best practices, participants will collaborate with talented peers to create a deeper and more enduring understanding of the topics. 

By attending the program, learners will improve their ability to: 

• Design and perform observational and experimental clinical research
• Analyze, interpret and present clinical research data
• Write and revise at least one publication-quality manuscript and prepare an additional contribution that could be developed into a manuscript
• Learn how to design and implement research projects

Focused on team-based learning, learners collaborate, discuss and problem-solve in teams while learning from one another. Throughout the year, participants also will have access to program faculty for guidance and support.

The comprehensive curriculum features interactive webinars and more than 85 recorded online lectures. During the program, participants will also have access to the Harvard Medical School Countway Library digital holdings.

Upon fulfilling the program requirements, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion. Learners can also apply to become an Associate Member of Harvard University Alumni Associations. As a member of the HMS alum community, participants will be invited to attend Harvard Medical School Postgraduate Medical Education alum events.

“Clinical research fuels new insights into disease mechanisms and new therapies enabling improved patient outcomes,” said Ajay K. Singh, senior associate dean for postgraduate medical education at Harvard Medical School. “By making high-impact clinical research skills training and education available in Poland, we advance the HMS mission to nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being.”

Curriculum

The Polish Clinical Scholars Research Training curriculum is designed to enable participants to expand their knowledge and strengthen their skills in clinical research methods.

Foundation, Elective and Concentration Courses

Each module allows participants to build a broad base of expertness in clinical research and then overlay specialized information by choosing two electives from choices:  Secondary Analysis of Clinical Trials, Genetic Epidemiology, Machine Learning, or Advanced Clinical Trials. Electives require participants to take the foundation courses and their choices of elective courses.

Program Modules 

Foundation courses include:

• Introduction to STATA
• Introduction to Epidemiology
• Introduction to Biostatistics
• Ethics and Regulations
• Clinical Trials
• Biostatistical Computing
• Applied Regression
• Advanced Statistical Methods
   

This course will have four electives, and learners will be able to choose two electives. They are:
 

Secondary Analysis of Clinical Trials:
This elective involves the use of existing data to conduct research beyond the primary question which the original study was designed to answer. It covers topics commonly encountered in such research, including subgroup analysis, meta-analysis, non-linear relationships, and longitudinal data analysis. Relevant statistical methods are presented, and the capabilities of STATA for such analyses are emphasized. Common mistakes and ways to avoid them are highlighted.

Genetic Epidemiology: 
In this elective, we will explore both the huge potential of genetic epidemiology -- as well as its not insignificant limitations -- using both historical and contemporary examples. We will discuss the basic mechanics of different forms of investigation (e.g. linkage vs association studies, family-based vs population-based), while emphasizing the inextricability of our genetics from the environments in which we live.

Machine Learning: 
Recent years have seen an unprecedented increase in the size and availability of information in medicine and public health. Machine learning, a relatively new set of approaches at the intersection of statistics, optimization, and computer science, offers more model-free approaches to handling “Big Data” sets than traditional regression methods. This elective provides an overview of supervised and unsupervised learning and introduces some practical algorithms and examples of machine learning and related methods using Stata. Specific topics include clustering, principal components, classification and regression trees, random forests, and lasso regression. There will be a focus on dimension reduction, bias/variance trade-off, training and validation datasets, and comparison with standard linear and logistic regression.

Advanced Clinical Trials: 
The Advanced Topics in Clinical Research elective covers a range of specialized areas that build upon foundational knowledge of clinical research design, methodologies, ethics, data analysis, and implementation. The team assignment of this elective provides students with the opportunity to gain practical experience in developing a research protocol for an advanced clinical research study. By engaging in this process, students will enhance their research skills, critical thinking abilities, and understanding of the complexities involved in designing and conducting a clinical research study.

Learners will be prompted to make their selection prior to Workshop 2. Except for Secondary Analysis of Clinical Trials, the electives will entail live, virtual sessions. Each elective will culminate in a team assignment. During the sessions, the teams will be able to work on their team assignments. 

Capstone 

The overall aim of the Manuscript Capstone project will be to write one publishable scientific manuscript. Throughout the process, participants will receive feedback from Harvard Medical School faculty to improve their manuscripts. For their manuscripts, participants will submit a brief pitch of their research idea and data source, submit a first and second draft, and a final draft. Participants will receive feedback on their outlines and manuscript drafts. The final draft will be evaluated for a pass/fail score on their capstone project. The scholars also need to complete (and will receive) two peer reviews of manuscripts of fellow scholars.

Preferably, learners who enroll in the program will already have access to a dataset or source ready for analyses and manuscript writing. Alternatively, one of the manuscript options will be a systematic review/meta-analysis, validating a questionnaire within a country/population or a study based on a publicly available dataset. Options for publicly-available datasets will be offered during the first workshop. Generally, to gain access to these datasets, a brief overview of the proposed study design will be submitted by each participant. The Polish Clinical Scholars Research Training program will guide the learners through the manuscript writing process and support them as they gain access to and understand the dataset.
Throughout the Capstone project, participants will learn the different ways to communicate their research ideas, write a publishable manuscript, write a response to their reviewers, and select a journal for publication.  

Assessments (Exams/Quizzes) 

Participants will be required to pass all assessments with a grade of 70% or higher. At the end of each module, participants will need to pass a multiple-choice quiz to receive credit for completing the module. 

A multiple-choice midterm exam will be administered after the first two modules, and a final exam consisting of multiple-choice and open-response questions will be administered a month prior to the final workshop. Assessments will evaluate the content covered in the learning modules (pre-recorded lectures). 

Who Should Apply 

This program is designed for clinicians working in clinical research at the faculty level (or equivalent). Candidates holding Polish academic credentials equivalent to:

• MD
• PhD
• MBBS
• DMD
• DDS
• PharmD
• DNP
• MPH or an equivalent degree 

The review committee will consider candidates with a bachelor’s degree with extensive research experience for admission on a case-by-case basis.

Application Deadlines:

At this time there is no open recruitment for the program. 

Notice of Admittance

Notice of Admittance will acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidence. 

Participants can expect to hear a decision on their application around the second half of September from the date on which all application materials were submitted.