Overview

The LAG+USC RED fellowship is a one-year program designed to prepare future emergency medicine physicians to be intelligent consumers of the medical literature, and give them the skills needed to disseminate this information across the specialty to maximize impact on the bedside practice of evidence based medicine. Upon completion, the graduate will achieve the following goals:

Obtain advanced knowledge of clinical research methods and basic statistical analyses and techniques.
Acquire advanced knowledge in protocol development, and procedures involved in conduct of clinical trials.
Education of informed consent for studies involving human subjects.
Develop a journal club curriculum for residents, fellows and faculty.
Prepare and present research results at a regional research meeting
Write a research manuscript of publishable quality.
Deliver regular research educational lectures and literature updates at local grand rounds, with aspirations of presenting these lectures at a national conference.
Develop a functional, engaging and sustainable model for resident research modules.
Serve as a mentor for the summer research students working on various studies in the department of Emergency Medicine.
Develop skills necessary to lecture on the national level.
Serve as a clinician-educator in an academic emergency department.
RED fellows will have dedicated office space with administrative support and our expected to work 2 clinical shifts in the DEM weekly. Fellows will receive a salary commensurate with their level of training as well as full health benefits. Fellows will be appointed as a Clinical Instructor pending approval of the promotions committee and Dean.

Fellowship Specifications

General Fellowship Requirements:

Complete an abbreviated course in research methodology. The tuition, books and all needed supplies including software are to be provided by the fellow.
Develop a formal and sustainable curriculum for resident research module.
Initiate 2 new departmental journal clubs with a focus on study design: one for all current fellows and one for faculty.
Work with designated residents to supervise resident journal club, with a focus on developing a more engaging format.
Present scientific findings at one or more regional meetings.
Attend all research division monthly meetings; help in departmental review of scientific proposals; become a journal reviewer.
Perform service by joining and participating in a minimum of one departmental committee.
Serve as the lead author on a manuscript of publishable quality.
Deliver regular research educational lectures and literature updates at local grand rounds, with aspirations of presenting these lectures at a national conference.
Work as an attending physician at LAG+USC ED/ Verdugo hills at the discretion of the chair for a total of 2 shifts weekly.
Be present in the office with protected time every Monday.
Help mentor medical students and residents participating in departmental research.
Fellowship Eligibility: Fellows must have an active California medical license and be board certified or board eligible (ABEM or ABOEM) at the time of fellowship matriculation.

Fellowship Duration: 12 months

Fellowship Directors: Drs. Sanjay Arora and Michael Menchine

Research Division Faculty Advisers: Dr. Deirdre Anglin, Dr. Sanjay Arora, Dr. Cynthia Bir, Dr. Ilene Claudius, Dr. Mark Eckstein, Dr. Sean Henderson, Dr. Michael Menchine, Dr. Seth Seabury.

Areas of Current Clinical Research: Clinical Decision Rules, Methodology, Interpersonal Violence, Diabetes, Transition from ED to chronic care, Pediatric/Adolescent Mental Health, ALTE, EMS, Disaster Medicine, Asthma, Genetic Determinants of Health, HIV, Medical Decision Making, Toxicology, Prescription Opioid Abuse, Health Economics, Biomechanics, Diversity Populations, Mobile health.

Fellowship Educational Plan

Mentorship – RED fellows will identify a primary intra-departmental mentor and a secondary mentor in or out of the department. Fellows will help mentor medical students and residents participating in departmental research. Faculty members who are matched with mentors commit to meeting with their assigned fellow at least monthly, and, in most cases, more frequently to discuss details of designing and implementing projects, presentations, and manuscripts. Our goal is to match each fellow with a primary mentor within the first 3 months of fellowship, if not before. In some cases, candidates will select mentors prior to starting the fellowship and may even begin initial discussions with their mentors about planned research activities.

Coursework – Epidemiology and biostatistics (including multiple regression); critical evaluation of the medical literature; basic research design and methods; data acquisition, management and security; scientific writing; human subjects and ethical research participation.

Sample coursework in Research Methodology:
SC-CTSI Introduction to Clinical and Translational Research; Emergency Medicine Basic Research Skills (EMBRS) Workshop

Dissemination of Research – Under the guidance of one of the fellow’s primary mentors, he/she will develop lecturing skills and initiate a regular section at local grand rounds to inform residents and faculty about relevant literature that can be translated to the bedside to impact patient care. Additionally will develop a journal club for faculty and fellows, and will take over the research module curriculum.

Fellowship specific Project – The fellows will be responsible for designing one project based on their own interests. A sample project might be a social media based approach to the dissemination of research, or a written compilation of must read papers in the year

Clinical – 2 clinical shifts per week

Detailed Curriculum

Year One Timeline/ Goals/ Objectives:

Prior to fellowship starting:

Identification of mentors
Begin involvement with active summer students
Formulate ideas for new journal clubs/ modules

Summer:

Finalize year-long individualized project plans and begin project
Serve as a mentor for summer students
Develop curriculum for all journal clubs and modules
Join a departmental committee

Fall:

Complete abbreviated research coursework
Initiate journal clubs and modules
Serve as a mentor for resident research projects
Initiate local lecture series
Become a reviewer for a medical journal

Winter:

Submit an abstract of current research projects to a regional meeting
Attend conferences and present abstracts as accepted

Spring:

Engage in organization of students and student project for the upcoming summer
Write up summary of fellowship project
Write a manuscript of publishable quality
Complete and submit final progress report of year’s activities

Research Education

The Research Division is responsible for developing, maintaining and executing the research curriculum for the LAG+USC emergency medicine residency program. The overarching goals of this curriculum are 1) to create intelligent consumers of medical literature of all residents and 2) to engage with those residents who are interested in research to stimulate research ideas and develop early research skills. The goals are achieved through a combination of didactic sessions, small-group modules, informal brain-storming sessions and direct mentoring.

Research Module Series for Residents

The Research Division is responsible for delivering a series of small group modules aimed at aiding resident physicians to become savvy consumers of medical literature.

Resident Research Track

The Resident Research Track is designed to foster critical thinking and encourage scientific inquiry among the resident track members. The Resident Research Track formally meets quarterly, though informal sessions and mentoring are much more common. The main emphases are on:

Developing a career roadmap that focuses on identifying training, skills and mentoring and strategies to attain these
Turning clinical questions into testable hypotheses
Gaining early skills in research design, data management and analysis
Improving scientific writing
Becoming a skilled consumer of relevant scientific literature, and communicating the findings from literature to others
Conducting searches for evidence to inform clinical practice and learning to do this on a clinical shift
The specific activities will vary from year to year depending on the skills of the current resident members, but have included meetings with senior researchers at outside institutions, real-time “brainstorming” of research questions and hypothesis with other resident tracks and faculty members, and primers on basic data analysis techniques.

Practice Improving Monthly Papers

This grand Rounds Fixture aims to keep residents abreast and inspired by recently published literature that has direct impact on clinical practice. The sessions are short (approximately 30 minutes) with high educational and entertainment value.

Medical Student RSP

Our department is known across the medical school as being amongst the most active in mentoring Keck students though their Required Scholarly Projects (RSP). In addition, our division runs a summer program for students ranging from first year undergraduates to fourth year medical students from across the country. The popularity of this program has increased to the point where last summer we had almost 30 students working for us. The students work as a team in the emergency department approaching patients to include in a prospective cohort, and last summer our students enrolled almost 2,000 patients in a study focused on risky drug and alcohol use and barriers to medication adherence.

As director of the program, Dr. Arora requires that the summer students work three 8-hour research shifts per week, including weekends and evenings. Additionally, all students attend a Monday lab meeting where we discuss project related issues, do formal research related teaching, and listen to student presentations on clinical topics that have interested them while enrolling patients. The subject of this summer’s project will be examining patients’ understanding of their discharge instructions, specifically about the medications they received during their visit, their diagnosis, their discharge medications and what they are for, and their understanding of return precautions and follow-up visits. Dr. Arora’s dedication to the summer students earned him the RSP mentor of the year award at the Keck School of Medicine in 2015.

Contact

Gabbie Gomez
Research Division: Administrative Assistant
Office phone: 323-226-7028
[email protected]