About the Human Investigations Program
The Human Investigations Program at OHSU, a curriculum resulting in a Certificate in Human Investigations or Master of Clinical Research degree, is designed to meet the growing need for clinical and translational investigators. A non-degree option allows enrollment in individual courses. With increased knowledge of the basic science of disease, clinical and translational scientists can translate these concepts from the bench to the bedside and to the community. HIP at OHSU is supported by the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute funded through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and is sponsored by the School of Medicine.
This program is targeted to medical or dental residents and fellows, postdoctoral research fellows, faculty of the medical, nursing, public health, and dental schools, clinicians and researchers from the community interested in developing research skills in human investigation. In addition, we are pleased to accept graduate students in any doctoral program at OHSU (Ph.D., M.D., D.M.D.) who are interested in training in clinical and translational research.
Goals of the program
HIP strives to provide an educational foundation for successful, comprehensively trained researchers based upon the competencies of clinical and translational research. By the end of the certificate program in clinical investigations, all students should achieve competency in the following (additional competencies for MCR students noted):
- Generate a hypothesis and specific aims for a clinical or translational research study.
- Propose an appropriate study design and protocol for a clinical and translational research study.
- Compare and assess appropriate study methods (study design) for a research question as to feasibility, efficiency, and bias-free inference.
- Evaluate the reliability and validity of measures and threats to study validity (bias).
- Interpret the basic principles of random variation, systematic error, sampling error, measurement error, hypothesis testing, type I and type II errors, and confidence limits. (MCR students will both interpret and apply these principles).
- Incorporate the fundamental principles of the protection of human subjects and essential elements of voluntary informed consent; minimize risks to human subjects; and protect vulnerable populations.
- Identify and interpret the state of knowledge regarding a research question through critical appraisal of published literature.
- Apply best practices in informatics for the organization of biomedical and health information and research data in the management of data for clinical and translational research.
- Communicate clinical and translational research findings to different groups of individuals, including colleagues, students, the lay public, and the media.
- Recognize the relevance of demographic, geographic, and ethnographic features within communities and populations when designing a clinical study.
- Utilize adult learning principles to assess areas for growth in clinical and translational research skills. (MCR students will engage in additional opportunities for growth in those areas).
- Model the principles of building and managing an interdisciplinary/ intradisciplinary/ multidisciplinary team that matches the objectives of the research problem.
- Appraise the role of community engagement as a strategy for identifying community health issues, translating health research to communities and reducing health disparities. (Specific to MCR)
- Apply management best practices in a research project across its fiscal, personnel, regulatory compliance and problem solving requirements. (Specific to MCR)