Building on Success: DFM Research Fellowships Train Award-Winning Scientists

For nearly two decades, the Department of Family Medicine (DFM) has been committed to helping primary care physicians and other health professionals become outstanding research scientists. The DFM carries out this commitment through two successful training fellowships: one focused on primary care research (now in its fourth funding cycle), and one focused on alcohol research.

The two fellowships have trained over 35 physician-scientists from a variety of disciplines. Seven former fellows have gone on to receive career development awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and two current fellows have just received fundable scores on similar grant submissions-considerable accomplishments that not only demonstrate the strength of the fellowship programs themselves, but also firmly position the DFM and the institution as national research leaders.

Photos by: Armando S. Vera

Fellow Accomplishments

As of the end of 2008, these former research fellows have received career development awards, also known as K awards, from the NIH:

• James Davis, MD, "Meditation as a treatment for tobacco and alcohol dependence" (2008-present)
• Marino Bruce, PhD, "Socioeconomic distress and chronic kidney pain in the Jackson heart study" (2007-2010)
• Mario Sims, PhD, "Heart disease and race (Jackson heart study)" (2006-2011)
• Randall Brown, MD, PhD, "Time-to-event analysis of drug court health outcomes" (2004-2009)
• David Rabago, MD, "The efficacy of prolotherapy in osteoarthritic knee pain" (2004-2009)
• Elizabeth Cox, MD, PhD, "Shared decision making and inappropriate antibiotic use" (2002-2006)
• Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD, "Echinacea for respiratory infection" (1999-2003)

There are different classifications of K awards, but all provide substantial funds for postdoctoral clinicians to build a research program and begin their academic research careers.

In addition to NIH funding, fellows have received research grant awards from other sources, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, and the DFM.

Former fellows have published over 100 articles in academic journals, made hundreds of presentations at national meetings, and cultivated important research relationships with scientists throughout the institution and the nation.

According to Bruce Barrett, MD, PhD, director and principal investigator of the primary care research fellowship, this success is due to two factors: individual motivation and a rich environment. "Our fellows are truly interested in service, in asking important health questions, and in finding answers we can trust. Their motivation is complemented by strong fellowship programs run by committed, successful people."

The strength of our fellowships further enhance our reputation as a national leader, Dr. Barrett added. "The DFM is one of the largest and most successful family medicine departments in the nation. Our outstanding reputation-and the outstanding reputation of the School of Medicine and Public Health-reinforces the quality of the fellowships, and vice versa."

About the Fellowships

Primary Care Research Fellowship

The primary care research fellowship, a joint project between the DFM and the Departments of Population Health Science, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics, was first funded in 1993 by the US Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The fellowship's funding was renewed for the third time in June of 2008.

The fellowship prepares individuals for research-oriented careers related to the organization, delivery, or effectiveness of primary health care and preventive medicine. Fellows conduct research studies, write papers, and develop grant proposals, often with the goal of obtaining an NIH or other substantive grant that they can take with them to an academic faculty position.

Open to anyone with a doctoral degree, the fellowship has trained family physicians, internal medicine physicians, a naturopathic physician, pediatricians, and PhD health scientists from nutrition, nursing, and sociology. According to Dr. Barrett, the fellowship's interdisciplinary nature is one of its main strengths. "Discussions around the seminar table help us build bridges across disciplines and design research that makes sense from multiple perspectives," he said.

Alcohol Research Fellowship

The DFM's alcohol research fellowship was first funded in 2004 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a division of the NIH.

The fellowship trains physicians and other health care professionals to perform behavioral, pharmacologic, diagnostic and clinical research on alcoholism in primary care and community settings. Like the primary care research fellowship, the alcohol research fellowship also trains fellows to publish research and successfully compete for NIH grants.

Fellows come from a variety of medical specialties-not just family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, naturopathic medicine and obstetrics, but also surgery and emergency medicine, making the program unique among similar fellowships nationwide.