Clinical Research & Education Programs | MedStar Health
Members of MedStar Health Research Institute

MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) offers in-person and online educational opportunities to enhance the research knowledge and practices of our investigators and associates.

Orientations and workshops

MedStar investigators orientation

This 1-day orientation helps both experienced and early-career investigators learn to successfully conduct research within the MedStar system and access the research support services available from MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI). Topics include:

  • Importance of the scientific center administrator/principal investigator relationship

  • Tips, roles, and responsibilities for the successful conduct of research

  • Research administrative services

  • Research development support services and tools

  • Compliance and research integrity review

  • Overview of MHRI Core Scientific Support Services

  • MedStar’s role within the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS)

  • Demonstration of the Explorys program, a cloud-based clinical data software solution for MedStar researchers.

Orientation occurs twice per year, in the spring and fall. Please contact us at research@medstar.net to save your seat.

Intensive one-week investigators’ workshop

Developed by Jason Umans, MD, PhD, scientific director of the Biomarker, Biochemistry, and Biorepository Core, and Nawar Shara, PhD, director, Center of Biostatistics, Informatics and Data Science, this is a one-week (40-hour) intensive survey workshop for investigators, focusing on biostatistics, data science, epidemiology, and Big Data for research. 

Details and more information on future dates will be forthcoming.  Contact us with questions.

Members of MedStar Health Research Institute

MedStar has signed up as an institution to provide an NIH course, Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research, free of charge to all MedStar Health residents, fellows, faculty, and associates. This online course focuses on the spectrum of clinical research and the research process by highlighting biostatistical and epidemiologic methods, study design, protocol preparation, patient monitoring, quality assurance, ethical and legal issues, and much more. Other areas covered include data management and ethical issues, including protection of human subjects.

Course objectives:

  • Provide an overview of basic biostatistical and epidemiologic methods involved in conducting clinical research

  • Describe the principles involved in the ethical, legal, and regulatory issues in clinical human subjects research, including the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

  • Describe principles and issues involved in monitoring patient-oriented research

  • Describe the infrastructure required in performing clinical research and the steps involved in developing and funding research studies

This course is being offered as a certificate program. At the conclusion of the course, a written examination is required for the certificate to be granted. Registration is required in order for you to be eligible to take the examination and receive certification.

If you are interested in registering, please visit this website (you are registering as a remote site participant). 

  1. For organization, please choose: MedStar Health, Department of Graduate Medical Education/Columbia, Maryland.

  2. If asked for title, please specify: resident/fellow, faculty, medical student.

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Advanced research training programs

MedStar Teaching Scholars program

Members of MedStar Health Research Institute

The MedStar teaching scholars program is a two-year longitudinal program leading to Medical Education Research Certification (MERC) and Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) certification. The program is led by MedStar Health Academic Affairs and MedStar Health Research Institute, in conjunction with the Association of American Medical Colleges, and has been in place since 2009.

The heart of the program is teaching clinician educators from across MedStar Health how to apply research principles to medical education; become informed consumers of the medical education research literature; to be effective collaborators in medical education research; and to develop as a leader in academic medicine. GME program directors, core clinical teaching faculty, clerkship directors, and other clinician educators (with limited research training or experience) in all specialties and professions are encouraged to apply.

MedStar Research Scholars program

Team photo of MedStar Health's Teaching and Research Scholars exhibit table at a conference.
MedStar Health Research Institute, MedStar Health Academic Affairs, and the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science are pleased to offer a Research Career Development program to our clinical and junior research colleagues. This program, a companion to MedStar Teaching Scholars, is designed to support the development of our clinicians who seek careers with an important focus on clinical and translational research, in large part by addressing critical needs for research mentorship and critical feedback in project design, analysis, and presentation. Ideal applicants are clinicians who have a career trajectory focused on academic medicine who now seek to become independent, extramurally supported clinical investigators. A commitment to conducting mentored clinical or translational research with the ultimate goal of progressing to scholarly independence is the cornerstone of this program.

KL2 post-doctoral scholarship awards

Supported by our Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, these awards focus on developing early-career faculty investigators through a multidisciplinary mentored research experience. The goal of these awards is to create independent, extramurally funded investigators, who are active in programs of multidisciplinary, collaborative research. These awards require a documented commitment of 75 percent protected time for research and career development activities and may provide salary support up to $90,000 annually. View the full KL2 Scholars Awards request for applications at http://www.georgetownhowardctsa.org/education/kl2-scholar-program.

Masters in clinical and translational research

This advanced degree program, established by the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS), helps students become well versed in foundational aspects of research methods, as well as essential clinical research methods, and proposing, conducting, managing, and reporting clinical and translational research in an ethically responsible manner.

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Members of MedStar Health Research Institute

MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) and the Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS) host Research Grand Rounds on the second Friday of each month, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. These interdisciplinary grand rounds are appropriate not only for principal investigators, but also for clinical and research trainees and for all members of the research team. They are intended to introduce projects, approaches, research methods, populations and resources which are of interest throughout all disciplines, and could lead to new collaborations and research opportunities.

View past research grand rounds.

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The Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (GHUCCTS) is a multi-institutional consortium of medical research institutions forged from a desire to promote clinical research and translational science. The members of the GHUCCTS consortium are: Georgetown University (GU), Howard University (HU), MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Washington Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center (VAMC).

Through multiple partnerships and collaborations among the member institutions, GHUCCTS is transforming clinical research and translational science in order to bring new scientific advances to health care.

Visit the GHUCCTS events calendar for a complete schedule of upcoming research and education events.

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