Dr. Lisa Rong, assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology, was one of six early-career faculty from Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) and two from Houston Methodist Hospital (HMH) to participate in an intensive four-day training workshop designed to provide faculty with key skills for conducting clinical research.
The workshop, held July 26-29 at the Cornell Club in New York City, kicked off the group's participation in the year-long Mentored Clinical Research Training Program (MCRTP), a joint effort between WCM and HMH to increase the pipeline of clinical investigators who are committed to advancing the standard of care for patients.
Over the remaining year, each participant will work with a mentor to develop his or her own clinical research project proposal for consideration by an outside funding agency. Dr. Rong's research interest is the use of transesophageal echocardiography to diagnose structural heart disease and predict results of surgical interventions. She is mentored by Dr. Kane Pryor, vice chair for academic affairs, director of clinical research and director of education in the Department of Anesthesiology.
"This program is a great opportunity for junior faculty to get involved with research," said Dr. Rong. "The workshop provided valuable didactic and mentoring sessions on how to conduct a clinical trial as well as dinner sessions filled with advice, tips and inspiring stories from the senior mentors."
Now in its fifth year, the program is directed by Dr. John Leonard, interim chair of the Weill Department of Medicine, director of the Joint Clinical Trials Office and associate dean for clinical research at WCM, and Dr. Timothy Boone, co-director of the Institute for Academic Medicine and chair of the Department of Urology at Houston Methodist, and professor of urology at WCM. WCM faculty members Dr. Scott Tagawa, the Richard A. Stratton Associate Professor in Hematology and Oncology, and Dr. Timothy Wilkin, associate professor of medicine, serve as co-leaders for the program.
A version of this story first appeared on WCM Central.