Cornell – Hunter Health Equity Research Fellowship

Fellows will be mentored by Weill Cornell Medicine and Hunter College faculty with deep experience in health equity research and a track record of successfully funding their research programs extramurally. Each trainee will work with a clinician scientist, a Ph.D. scientist, and a junior mentor tailored to their research interests; additional advisors may be added as needed. Fellows are expected to develop their own research ideas with the help of their mentors, and are strongly encouraged to pursue both primary and secondary data analysis projects. Fellows are expected to pursue opportunities for small grants to obtain experience with grant writing in their second/third years.

Physician fellows will supplement their research training with up to 20% of their time devoted to clinical practice in inpatient or outpatient internal medicine. Training in academic skills including leadership and mentoring is also provided. Electives in clinical teaching and point-of-care ultrasound are available.

Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research (for clinician trainees without prior formal research training)

The program consists of didactic courses (Biostatistics I and II, Clinical Research Methods, Epidemiology, Advanced Epidemiology, Decision Analysis, Research Ethics, etc.) and a mentored thesis project (two published papers in peer-reviewed journals). Courses are offered in two intensive sessions in summer and late fall, with weekly seminars where students present their progress on their research.

Leadership and Mentoring

This program is designed to develop leadership skills in mentorship strategies, conflict resolution and negotiation and to provide personalized plans for career and personal growth that promote communication, productivity, and professional vitality.

GIM Research Seminar

This seminar series includes researchers presenting their own work, and guest speakers who are collaborators or work in areas of interest to our research faculty. Once per month, the seminar is on a health equity topic. Fellows are expected to present their work at this seminar once each year.

Monthly Evidence Based Clinical Review

Program faculty present their work to familiarize each other with their research programs and spur collaborations.

Monthly Primary Care Journal Club

Each fellow selects a journal article of their choosing and engages a faculty expert discussant with the help of GIM faculty. The fellow leads the discussion with attendees, who include researchers and clinicians.

Monthly Fellowship Meetings

Fellows and program leaders meet to discuss the program, progress, and challenges. Fellows present their work in progress to their colleagues for feedback. Fellows also practice their talks at regional and national meetings during this meeting.

Presentations at Meetings

Each fellow is expected to present their work at a national meeting annually. This includes the Department of Medicine Research Day, the Center for Health Equity’s annual Symposium, and the Primary Care Innovations Symposium.

Clinical Teaching

This one-week interactive program addresses specific teaching skills that enhance patient-centered clinical learning with an emphasis on activating learners, interviewing patients, physical diagnosis, and critiquing clinical reasoning. The curriculum is modeled after Kelly Skeff’s program at Stanford University, materials from Harvard Macy Institute for health educators, and materials from two master teachers, Jeff Wiese (Teaching in the Hospital) and Brendan Reilly (One Doctor; Inconvenient Truths about Effective Clinical Teaching). The program provides direct observation of each participant’s teaching with confidential feedback and design options for dedicated practice.

Clinical Reasoning

This three-day interactive program addresses specific teaching skills that enhance clinical diagnostic reasoning and therapeutic decision making skills. The curriculum will help physicians develop best practices for teaching reasoning during clinical and didactic encounters as well as diagnose common pitfalls in clinical reasoning and develop best practices to mitigate bias and errors.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)

This one-week course is designed to achieve competency in image acquisition, image interpretation, and clinical integration in the following areas: basic cardiology, lung and pleural disease, kidney and bladder, lower extremity veins, and approach to shock, dyspnea, and acute renal failure.