Research Training

The McGovern Medical School Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship provides a minimum of 17 months of “research” rotations throughout the three-year fellowship.  The fellow is expected to identify, participate and complete a scholarly activity as described by the American Board of Pediatrics. Of note, an ELECTIVE may be chosen in place of the Research rotation if there is a significant overlap between the research topic and training in that elective.  The change must be pre-approved by the program director.

The ABP has expanded project options but did not dilute the rigor expected. Scholarly activity can include but is not limited to clinical research, basic science research, meta-analysis, quality improvement project, educational curriculum design, and Master’s level program with a thesis.

Rotations are provided in monthly time periods with increasing numbers of months as the fellow advances in training. Oversight of all scholarly activity is provided by the Fellow’s individualized Scholarship Oversight Committee (SOC).

Each fellow is mentored by the Program Director (PD) initially. As the fellow navigates through the curriculum and identifies areas of interest. The PD and faculty assist the fellow in identifying a clinical mentor who will guide them in fellowship training and career development.

In addition, the fellow designates a research mentor to serve as their Scholarly Oversight Committee (SOC) chairperson. The SOC chairperson helps the fellow identify 2-3 more faculty members to complete the SOC. Over the three-year training program, the fellow identifies a research project relevant to pediatric pulmonology, analyzes the data, and develops a written publishable manuscript with guidance and supervision from the SOC. Fellows are encouraged to present their abstracts at the annual UT Pediatrics Fellows Research Symposium and American Thoracic Society International Conference.

UT offers courses to enhance the fellow educational experience in research, including

• Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) courses
• Integrated Research Information Software (iRIS) course to improve understanding of the institutional board review (IRB) process
• Clinical Research Curriculum – weekly course during the 2^nd and 3^rd year of fellowship to learn about Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Literature Appraisal, and Clinical Trial Design
• Grants 101

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