The New England Baptist Hospital (NEBH) Fellows Research Program includes three parallel training programs for each of the major NEBH therapeutic disciplines (Arthroplasty, Spine, Sports Medicine). The Program for each discipline includes training and development, participation in a research study, mentoring, and appraisal.
Research Training and Development
At the beginning of the research year, there will be three didactic sessions for each therapeutic discipline: (1) How to write a scientific manuscript; (2) How to appraise a published article for scientific merit; (3) How to prepare an Institutional Review Board (IRB) application for a new project; and (4) Database management. Other didactic topics (e.g., research design, statistical power, statistical analysis, etc.) will be addressed in the context of interactive sessions within the therapeutic disciplines.
Participation in Research
Each Fellow is expected to write at least one manuscript to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of the year. There are three opportunities to assist Fellows in selecting a research project.
Option 1: Investigator-initiated Research Question
Each fellow will be given an opportunity to select their research question from a list of research questions generated by the previous year Attendings. The Fellow will write a literature review that summarizes the state of the science on a particular research question defined by the NEBH Attendings. If the research question has not yet been addressed in existing literature, the Fellow will develop the research design and methods for the study and prepare an IRB submission so that s/he can implement the new data collection during the Fellowship year.
If the original research question generated by the Attendings has already been adequately addressed in the scientific literature, the Fellow may develop a new research question that builds on his/her literature review. Alternatively, s/he may choose another question from the original Attendings' list and implement a literature review de novo.
Option 2: Participation in Registry Data Collection
Fellows will also have an opportunity to collaborate with the Registry team for their respective therapeutic discipline to assist in collecting data for the respective Registry.
It may be feasible to piggyback the Fellows' research onto a subset group of patients from the Registry whereby a supplemental questionnaire is added to the core Registry questionnaire. Ideally, the Fellow's project would be designed so that his/her research question can be adequately addressed with a relatively small sample (e.g., <100 patients) within the timeframe that the one year of Fellowship permits. This would have the added benefit of ensuring that the Fellows work to build the Registry, which will be a resource of growing value over the years to come.
Option 3: Participation in Existing Investigator-Initiated Studies
Fellows may also participate in recruiting patients for participation in one or more investigator-initiated study/ies that is/are in active accrual. This provides an opportunity for exposure to multiple studies as well as possible co-authorship on additional scientific publications.
Mentorship
Each Fellow will have two mentors: a clinical mentor and a research methods mentor. After selecting their research question, the Fellows will work with their mentors to develop a presentation and a research protocol. The presentation will be given to their peers and the research methods group for appraisal prior to commencing the research to ensure elements of design and methods are appropriately evaluated prior to implementing the project (ideally within 2-3 months of commencing their Fellowship year).
Towards the end of the Fellowship year, the Fellows will present the findings of this research in the same forum to provide feedback for its presentation and for manuscript development.
During the year they will meet with their mentors and other members of the research team as appropriate to ensure productivity and continued progress are being made. At the completion of the research year, the Fellows will present the findings of their research project and prepare a manuscript describing their results.
Appraisal
At the completion of the year (early July), Fellows will submit an exit interview/survey to appraise the research experience and develop recommendations for the incoming Fellowship candidates.
The measure of success of a Fellow's research experience is submitting a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal.