Resources to help advance your research career

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,860 Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills 2 00:00:05,860 --> 00:00:11,260 to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor. 3 00:00:11,260 --> 00:00:17,340 As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients. 4 00:00:17,340 --> 00:00:22,380 When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find 5 00:00:22,380 --> 00:00:27,780 that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research 6 00:00:27,780 --> 00:00:29,200 program. 7 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:35,480 Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit. 8 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:40,580 However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs. 9 00:00:40,580 --> 00:00:46,200 For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians 10 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:51,800 the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor. 11 00:00:51,800 --> 00:01:01,060 Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene. 12 00:01:01,060 --> 00:01:03,720 Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast. 13 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,600 I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is a pleasure to be talking with you today. 14 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:13,960 I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to me today. 15 00:01:13,960 --> 00:01:20,160 I'm excited to share with you some resources that got me started on my research journey. 16 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:24,880 I will tell you that when I first started in my early career transitioning from fellow 17 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:30,800 to faculty, I didn't realize how much growth in career development or professional development 18 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:31,840 I would need to do. 19 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:32,840 I had no idea. 20 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:38,480 I mean, you know, you're going through the motions of your training and you're just, 21 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:40,760 you know, hitting all the milestones, right? 22 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:44,160 As a medical student, there are all these milestones you meet and then you graduate 23 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:47,480 and then same for your residency and your fellowship. 24 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:48,480 So you're always progressing. 25 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:53,520 When you get to your faculty career, one thing that happens that I didn't immediately recognize 26 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:59,360 is that I became responsible for my growth and development as a faculty member. 27 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,720 And I don't think I really appreciated how much it was dependent on me to figure that 28 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:04,720 out. 29 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:11,240 And so a lot of the resources that helped me in my transition, that helped me get started 30 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:17,080 on my research journey, really came to me to some extent serendipitously. 31 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:21,160 I didn't really intentionally create these opportunities. 32 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,760 At least I, in retrospect, I could have been more intentional about creating them. 33 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:31,560 And so I want to share some of them with you because, you know, I think it's important 34 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,120 for you to recognize how many opportunities there are. 35 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,840 And look, I will tell them any of the opportunities I'm going to share with you today are actually 36 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,240 specific to hematology. 37 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:42,720 I'm a hematologist. 38 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:47,400 I in general have looked for career development awards and career development programs that 39 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,760 have enhanced my ability to be a great hematologist, my research areas in hematology. 40 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,440 And so that's why I look for opportunities in hematology. 41 00:02:55,440 --> 00:03:01,280 So I'm going to share some examples of resources that I personally experienced that have helped 42 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:02,280 me. 43 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:08,600 But these are not necessarily focused, or at least my goal is not to tell you what hematology 44 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:10,440 resources are available. 45 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:14,960 My goal is to give you a sense of all the resources you should be looking out for that 46 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,200 could possibly help you advance. 47 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:22,800 And so these are, that's kind of my disclaimer as I get started sharing these episodes with 48 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:23,920 you. 49 00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:29,400 So I will tell you that my very earliest career development or professional development workshops 50 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:30,960 were doing residency. 51 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,320 Actually, I take that back. 52 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:37,360 They were doing fellowship because fellowship was the time at which I started thinking about, 53 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:39,920 OK, moving on to the next phase. 54 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,680 You know, when you go to fellowship, you're taking what's already a specialty and you're 55 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:45,680 going deeper. 56 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,280 You're doing a subspecialty. 57 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:53,800 And you've kind of decided that you're going to do something a little bit, well, I shouldn't 58 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,880 say unique because in all of medicine, what we do is unique, even when it's general. 59 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:01,600 So even when you're a general internist, you can see a unique population. 60 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:07,080 You don't have to be a subspecialty fellow, or you don't have to do a subspecialty fellowship 61 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:08,720 to be able to do that. 62 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:12,600 But when you do do a subspecialty fellowship, you're kind of, you know, you're narrowing 63 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:14,640 down the focus quite a bit. 64 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:19,020 And so you think a lot more about your career and you think a lot more about opportunities. 65 00:04:19,020 --> 00:04:25,640 And because of the way ACGME, and that's the Association of Colleges and Graduate Medical 66 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:34,600 Education, I believe, if I'm wrong, please just show me grace, I will put the right abbreviation 67 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:35,960 in the show notes. 68 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:41,600 But the ACGME is, I mean, they've got specific requirements, right, in fellowship. 69 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:47,040 And so we do, you know, a set number of months of clinical training, then a set number of 70 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,260 months of research, if research is part of your fellowship. 71 00:04:51,260 --> 00:04:54,160 And so there is flexibility in that. 72 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,320 It's to some extent a lot more elective time than you probably had in residency. 73 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:02,780 And it's not really elective time like elective time as much as it's really research elective 74 00:05:02,780 --> 00:05:03,780 time. 75 00:05:03,780 --> 00:05:06,120 So it's opportunities to grow in research. 76 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:12,240 So anyways, during my fellowship that I first did a very focused trainee workshop. 77 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:17,800 It was the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society trainee workshop, HTRS workshop. 78 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,800 And this workshop was done at least twice a year at that time. 79 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:23,800 One of them was before a major animal meeting. 80 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:25,840 It wasn't even research focused. 81 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:30,800 It was really just about thinking about clinical cases and hematology. 82 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:35,800 And I'm not even sure why I applied, but there was an opportunity that came across my desk 83 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:37,960 and I thought, oh, this would be great. 84 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:42,640 I think at the time, they probably paid for you to go to the animal meeting. 85 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:46,680 I don't recall all the benefits, but you know, there were benefits that I thought were interesting 86 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:47,680 to me. 87 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:52,080 I was not thinking, let me go here and advance my research career. 88 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:53,880 That was definitely not my thought at the time. 89 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:58,120 I was very focused on, you know, I get to go to a meeting and someone's going to pay 90 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,960 for something and I'm going to, you know, connect with others. 91 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,800 So it was just an opportunity. 92 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:05,800 And I went. 93 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,860 And at the time, I didn't recognize how helpful it was. 94 00:06:08,860 --> 00:06:14,220 But now in retrospect, I can say anything that brings you outside of your institution 95 00:06:14,220 --> 00:06:18,800 and connecting with people at other institutions is beneficial to your professional development 96 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:20,720 and your career. 97 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:25,480 Anything that brings you in contact with other faculty at other institutions who do things 98 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:31,200 differently from the way you do them at your institution, it is always of great benefit 99 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,060 to your career. 100 00:06:33,060 --> 00:06:39,360 And so even though I cannot trace my research growth to that experience, at least not that 101 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:46,860 I recall, I do know that it was an important milestone in just practicing taking opportunities 102 00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:48,860 that expose you to other people. 103 00:06:48,860 --> 00:06:53,360 And this really is the theme of many of the many of the resources that I am sharing with 104 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:54,360 you today. 105 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:59,240 The first, the first was Hemostasis and Therambosis Research Society trainee workshop. 106 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:05,840 And it was my first of many experiences around moving forward and just thinking about my 107 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:10,800 career in light of not just one institution, but really in the bigger picture of academic 108 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:12,540 medicine. 109 00:07:12,540 --> 00:07:18,440 The second one also is an hematology focused one, and that was the Hematology Fellows Consortium. 110 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:24,240 And this was actually run by a wonderful physician named Craig Kessler. 111 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,440 He may still be doing it right now. 112 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:28,200 It's been a while since I've thought about it. 113 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:34,880 But it was a really great opportunity for us as fellows to bring a research question 114 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:40,200 and get guidance in expanding that research question. 115 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,680 And you know, as clinicians, I feel like we understand research and we recognize that 116 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:47,120 there are many questions to be answered. 117 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,000 I think what we don't recognize, or at least for me what I didn't recognize, is how big 118 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,800 the gap was in terms of the things that I should have known and the things I did know. 119 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,840 I did not recognize how big that gap was. 120 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,000 And so it seemed, you know, straightforward that I would go for this two to three day 121 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,960 workshop and I would come back with a project that I could execute. 122 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:12,660 And to some extent, maybe the program was ambitious, or maybe I was the one who was 123 00:08:12,660 --> 00:08:16,600 thinking that this two to three day program would change everything about research. 124 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:25,800 The reality is it takes time to really get involved in research, to really grow research 125 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,080 program, to really narrow down a question. 126 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:31,680 And two to three days doesn't help you get there. 127 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:38,480 But two to three days is a helpful start because when you start to accumulate two to three 128 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:43,680 days of different workshops that help you continue thinking about your problem, it really, 129 00:08:43,680 --> 00:08:46,400 really, really does go a long way. 130 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:51,280 And so the Hematology Fellows Consortium was really the first opportunity I had to bring 131 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,800 a research problem that I wanted to address. 132 00:08:54,800 --> 00:09:01,120 One of the challenges with my attendance of that program at the time is that what I wanted 133 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,880 to do was still evolving. 134 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:05,240 And I think that's a challenge. 135 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:06,240 But it's okay. 136 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:10,240 It's okay because you learn tools that are applicable no matter what your research project 137 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:11,240 is. 138 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:15,240 But it would go so much further if you were very clear what population you wanted to contribute 139 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:20,800 to and how you would contribute to them and what resources are available to you. 140 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,400 So I would say that I wish I was in a more mature place at the time to take advantage 141 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,120 of all the goodness that came from that program. 142 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:30,120 But I was not. 143 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:31,840 I learned from it still. 144 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:35,760 I wish I had a project that I was going to continue longitudinally. 145 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:37,120 But I definitely learned from it. 146 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,480 So I would say that programs like that are helpful. 147 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:40,800 They help you think about your research. 148 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:43,200 They help you focus on your research. 149 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:49,240 But it is important to recognize that these programs are limited in how far they can take 150 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:53,440 you because of how short the period is. 151 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,160 And so many times at these programs, they'll say, you've got to go back to your mentors. 152 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,120 And to be honest, it's real. 153 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,160 You get help and then you go back to the help that you should already have on ground. 154 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,880 And if you don't have it on ground, then you think about how do I build it? 155 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:12,840 And so definitely the Hematology Fellows Consortium run by Craig Kessler was a really great resource. 156 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:18,040 It was a starting point for me really thinking about my project and thinking about bringing 157 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,280 other people in to help me think deeply about my project. 158 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:22,280 OK. 159 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:27,800 So that, again, was another Hematology focused opportunity. 160 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:32,040 The third Hematology focused opportunity I want to share is the ASH Clinical Research 161 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:33,040 Training Institute. 162 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,680 That's the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute. 163 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:42,320 And this was another one of those, which at this time was actually a year long program. 164 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:44,320 We had a two week workshop. 165 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:46,480 It was either one or two weeks in La Jolla, California. 166 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,640 I think it was a week. 167 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:56,800 And we would develop our projects alongside a cadre of outstanding faculty and biostatisticians 168 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,480 helping you really think deeply about your project. 169 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:05,320 And again, this was one of those, you know, a little bit longer than the Hematology Fellows 170 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:07,400 Consortium. 171 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:12,320 And it was one of those opportunities where you could just sit with your project that 172 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:19,120 you're working on and really get help to, like, enhance it and ask the right questions 173 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:24,920 and narrow down your research question and, you know, make the scope smaller. 174 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,040 And again, for me, it was very helpful. 175 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:29,560 I got to connect with mentors. 176 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:31,200 I got to connect with classmates. 177 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,680 In fact, one of my peer mentors and I wrote a paper as a result of that program. 178 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:38,120 So it was really, really useful. 179 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:42,760 And I also wish I understood what I really wanted to do, what the opportunities were 180 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:48,960 for me, because I ended up not being able to take that project forward. 181 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,100 And for that reason, it felt like that time was wasted. 182 00:11:52,100 --> 00:11:53,800 The time is never wasted. 183 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:59,720 So it felt to me at the time that it was wasted, but it's never wasted because every time you 184 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:06,000 take a project and think through how to make it better, how to narrow the question, how 185 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:11,240 to narrow the focus so that you can more easily answer it, it's a skill that you will always 186 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,600 apply to your research over and over again. 187 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:17,520 And right now in retrospect, I can say I'm not sure how much I got out of that. 188 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:21,600 But part of that is because there are many foundational steps to your growth as a clinician 189 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,260 researcher or as a clinician scientist. 190 00:12:24,260 --> 00:12:29,600 And sometimes you forget what pieces came together to help you be who you needed to 191 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:30,600 be, right? 192 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:31,600 You forget. 193 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:34,920 You forget that the alphabet used to be super hard at some point. 194 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:40,200 You forget that some special songs that your parents sang with you allowed you to really 195 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,760 learn it in a way that now you're like, what? 196 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:44,720 You mean there was a time I never knew the alphabet? 197 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:45,720 Huh? 198 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:46,720 Wonder what that was like. 199 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:47,720 It's kind of the same experience. 200 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:51,880 It was like, I don't think that was helpful, but it was helpful. 201 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:55,840 It's just hard for you to say that on the other side of your experience where now you 202 00:12:55,840 --> 00:13:02,080 have so much experience accumulated, you're not even sure which experience really contributed 203 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,880 to really moving you forward in a big way. 204 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:05,880 Okay. 205 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,560 So up until this point, I've named three that are very specific to hematology. 206 00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:14,040 I am going to go ahead and I'll talk about others that are not specific to hematology, 207 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:18,800 but I want to say also that whatever your subspecialty or your primary specialty, there's 208 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:24,020 always an interest group available that wants to support clinicians who are making this 209 00:13:24,020 --> 00:13:26,000 transition to research. 210 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,160 And so your societies have them. 211 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:33,480 Actually, it's mostly societies because I think these are three that are specific to 212 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:34,960 societies that I've been part of. 213 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:39,520 Though the one by Craig Kessler, the Hematology Fellows Consortium was actually supported by 214 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:46,600 industry, was not necessarily tied to a specific foundation, though it partnered with foundations 215 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:47,600 as well. 216 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:52,840 So you probably have a couple of these through your medical societies, whether your state 217 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:59,160 medical societies, through industry funding as far as partners in industry, but you definitely 218 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:03,480 have access to these and I recommend that if you don't know about them, you go looking 219 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,080 because they definitely exist. 220 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,760 And yes, you may be thinking, oh my gosh, they're so competitive. 221 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:12,360 You are competitive. 222 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:16,200 And that's why you should go out and pursue these opportunities so that you can get them 223 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,640 and get started on your research journey. 224 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:22,880 Okay, those were three specifically focused in Hematology. 225 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:23,960 The fourth one was not. 226 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,640 So the fourth one was an NIH diversity supplement. 227 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:30,680 And this was my first major award as a faculty member. 228 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:37,240 And it was a major award because it was the first award that actually bought me protected 229 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:38,240 time. 230 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:43,200 That's why it was a major award and that's why it was a really, really, really important 231 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:44,200 award. 232 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:51,360 So protected time is so critical to the emerging researcher, whether you are a PhD researcher, 233 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:57,920 an MD-PhD researcher, or an MD-only researcher, protected time is critical because when you 234 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:03,560 don't have protected time, it means that you are mostly focused doing clinical work if 235 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:08,040 you're a clinician teaching, maybe if you're a PhD researcher, but you're focused doing 236 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:10,640 other things other than your research. 237 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:16,320 So protected time buys you time during your workday to be able to move your research forward 238 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:18,880 and to do your research training. 239 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:26,160 And so that's why some of the most important awards are really awards that give you, like 240 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:32,360 cover part of your salary so that your daytime hours can be spent growing in the research 241 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,800 that you want to do, moving the research forward and then growing as a researcher as well. 242 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:44,360 And so the NIH diversity supplement, which I got as part of a mentor's R01 grant, was 243 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:49,440 so critical because it was the first time I actually had time during the day to move 244 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:50,440 research forward. 245 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:56,080 It was such a pivotal grant and there are many opportunities for diversity supplements 246 00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:02,320 and what you really need to do is connect with a mentor who already has an other R01 247 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:09,760 equivalent or higher grant and carve out a project within the larger grant and then it's 248 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,960 usually at least at the time was an administrative review. 249 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:18,600 So it's not the typical grant that goes in for like a major peer review where things 250 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:20,300 can get triaged. 251 00:16:20,300 --> 00:16:25,200 It generally I think has a higher likelihood of funding as long as you have a reasonable 252 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,760 project that fits within the landscape of the project of the parent grant. 253 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:36,520 And so an NIH diversity supplement was one of the most important first steps for me as 254 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:41,240 far as like a stepping stone towards really moving forward in research in a way that was 255 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:42,240 substantial. 256 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:43,240 Okay. 257 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,560 The fourth, that was the fourth one. 258 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:50,120 Okay, the fifth one, it was an NIH K-12 award. 259 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:54,240 Now again it was an NIH award and this was an institutional award. 260 00:16:54,240 --> 00:17:00,400 And so a K-12 award typically is a career development award that's given to institutions, 261 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:01,800 not to individuals. 262 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:06,800 And institutions have their own processes for how to put individuals on it and usually 263 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:12,880 they are reserved for faculty who want to get more training and research. 264 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:15,920 And I don't think they're limited to PhD versus MD. 265 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:21,360 I think as long as you are a faculty member who is moving forward in a research program, 266 00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:24,840 the NIH K-12 could be an opportunity for you. 267 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:26,320 Now there are different K-12s. 268 00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:29,120 At the time I was on a hematology focused K-12. 269 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:32,520 It's a hematology and transfusion medicine focused K-12. 270 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,320 There are other K-12 programs at different institutions. 271 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,600 And so think about your institution. 272 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,280 Does your institution have a K-12 award? 273 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:48,360 And inquire as to what it takes to apply to be a K-12 scholar. 274 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:53,680 Now some institutions have a lot of scholars applying for the same awards and some institutions 275 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:54,920 have few scholars. 276 00:17:54,920 --> 00:18:02,040 And so the competition is really mostly internal and it's important to talk with whoever is 277 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:10,280 the director of the K-12 or the PI of the K-12 to think about how you potentially could 278 00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:15,540 submit a competitive application so that you can take advantage of the K-12 award. 279 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:22,820 So that was an institutional award that usually is administered by PI within the institution 280 00:18:22,820 --> 00:18:26,560 and so candidates are selected through an internal process. 281 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:32,040 And that was a major award for me because it further protected my time and now really 282 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:37,600 allowed me to start to conceive and move my projects forward in a way that I had not until 283 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:40,000 this point. 284 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:45,080 Another Career Development Award that I want to highlight is the AAMC Minority Faculty 285 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,400 Leadership Development Seminar. 286 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:53,080 Now this is not necessarily a research focused seminar but it was really helpful for me to 287 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:55,320 think about my career. 288 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:59,400 It was in a sense it was stepping back from oh I'm trying to do research, I'm trying to 289 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:05,720 get grant funding, I'm trying to do manuscripts to really thinking about and conceptualizing 290 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:10,100 my career is a big thing which is important. 291 00:19:10,100 --> 00:19:14,080 It's really thinking about hey I know you're very focused on this aspect of your career 292 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:18,000 whether that's clinical or whether that's just research but think about your career 293 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:19,680 in the big picture. 294 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:23,840 This was like a two to three day award but it was helpful because at that time I had 295 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,640 been a faculty member for at least a couple of years and it was helpful to step into that 296 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:34,280 space having now a framework of what it meant to move my own career forward and having people 297 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:40,080 give me insight and advice on how to really take my career to the next level. 298 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,920 So this was not necessarily a research focused career development opportunity but it really 299 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,960 was a career development opportunity focused on my career as a whole and it really helped 300 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:54,960 me think strategically about how I was building my career making sure that I was moving in 301 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:56,880 the direction I wanted to move in. 302 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:01,900 So in our faculty jobs we will always be moving in a direction whether it's direction you 303 00:20:01,900 --> 00:20:06,680 want to be moving in or not is what is up in the air. 304 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:12,360 So the AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar was very helpful for me. 305 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:18,360 Now I will say that the AAMC puts out a bunch of these leadership development seminars. 306 00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:22,600 Some of them are for mid-career faculty, some of them are for early career faculty. 307 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:29,800 There are different ones and they will change over time but definitely look at AAMC opportunities 308 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:34,960 to really advance your career development. 309 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:41,520 One that I have done really recently is C-Change and that is I think C stands for culture so 310 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:46,260 culture change and that comes out of Brandeis University and it's led by a wonderful woman 311 00:20:46,260 --> 00:20:52,480 named Linda Palloli and I came to the C-Change Institute, gosh I can't say serendipitously 312 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:57,080 because many of these things I guess they could be serendipitous but usually you're 313 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:01,720 either on a listserv where people are sending you information and if you're not you should 314 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:07,280 get on one or you have colleagues who participated and they are sharing their insights or they 315 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,560 said it was a great program and so you start to think about it. 316 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:14,080 This was definitely one of those that was very, very helpful. 317 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:19,760 It was a group of about 16, they take 16 faculty a year. 318 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:24,520 I think our group was a little bit smaller than 16 but really it's just really thinking 319 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:31,240 about your career, conceptualizing your career as a whole and I think it's especially relevant 320 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:36,080 for mid-career faculty where there's almost like a mid-career slump, kind of like a mid-career 321 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:41,040 crisis, right, where you start as an early career faculty and people know you need help 322 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:45,400 and they're directing a lot of resources at you as opposed to, you know, when you get 323 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,120 to the senior level where you just know what you're doing or you're very connected, you 324 00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:53,180 know about things before everybody else knows about them, the mid-career can be a place 325 00:21:53,180 --> 00:21:56,400 where you don't have as many resources targeted towards you. 326 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:01,960 So it was really helpful because it gave us an opportunity to stop and say, well, you 327 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:06,800 know what, we've accomplished some successes up until this point of mid-career but what's 328 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:07,800 next? 329 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:08,800 Where do we want to take this? 330 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,600 How far do we want to go? 331 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:11,920 Is this what we want to be doing? 332 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:18,760 And so it was a really, really powerful experience of thinking about our careers in a really 333 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:23,640 amazing way and I actually just finished that program this year and it's been really awesome 334 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:24,640 and life-changing. 335 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:25,680 Okay. 336 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:30,020 So those are seven resources that really got me started on my research journey or have 337 00:22:30,020 --> 00:22:32,680 enhanced my research journey over time. 338 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:38,240 I'll summarize the seven, the Hemostasis and Therbosis Research Society Training Workshop, 339 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,120 Hematology Fellows Consortium, and ASH Clinical Research Training Institute. 340 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,520 That's the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute. 341 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:51,120 Those are three examples of various subspecialty-specific opportunities which you probably have in your 342 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:55,160 own subspecialty if you're not a hematologist. 343 00:22:55,160 --> 00:23:00,760 And then other ones that are not necessarily specific to hematology are the NIH Diversity 344 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:06,040 Supplement which is available really to all faculty at eligible institutions, NIH K-12 345 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:15,280 Award which sits within institutes, centers, or departments and are administered internally, 346 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:21,800 and then the AAMC Minority Faculty Leadership Development Seminar as an example of many, 347 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,600 many AAMC offerings that are available. 348 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:30,080 And then C-Change, Culture Change coming out of Brandeis University with Linda Pololi. 349 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,360 So those are really, really great resources. 350 00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:34,280 I will say that I've just listed a few. 351 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:39,960 These are not an exhaustive list of the resources I've taken advantage of in my transition from 352 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:46,020 clinician to research leadership, but these are just a smattering that I wanted to share 353 00:23:46,020 --> 00:23:47,020 with you. 354 00:23:47,020 --> 00:23:50,640 I imagine that especially if you're not in hematology, you've had access to a couple 355 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,480 of other career development or leadership development workshops or opportunities that 356 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:56,760 I have not mentioned. 357 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:58,560 I would love to hear about them. 358 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:03,900 Please send me a DM, leave me a voicemail on the podcast website, or even send me a 359 00:24:03,900 --> 00:24:08,980 message through the podcast website so that you can also be a part of it, or at least 360 00:24:08,980 --> 00:24:13,800 you can share with me experiences that you've had in your forward motion in your career. 361 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:14,800 All right. 362 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:16,560 It's been a pleasure talking with you today. 363 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:21,320 I did want to announce, if I haven't already, that I have another webinar coming up when 364 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,400 you don't have a research mentor, and that's happening December 20th, and it's happening 365 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,000 at noon Eastern. 366 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,040 I hope that you will sign up. 367 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,840 Information about it is on our podcast website, ClinicianResearcherPodcast.com, or you can 368 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:39,100 find it at CoagCoach.com slash events hyphen one. 369 00:24:39,100 --> 00:24:40,960 If you just look for events, you can find it. 370 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:41,960 All right. 371 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:43,240 It's been a pleasure to talk with you today. 372 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:44,880 Thank you for listening. 373 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:50,360 I look forward to hearing about your experiences as you take advantage of career development 374 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:53,360 resources to move your career forward. 375 00:24:53,360 --> 00:25:05,200 Have a great, great day, and I'll see you again on the next episode. 376 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:10,560 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic 377 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:16,280 clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they 378 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:17,360 have a mentor. 379 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:23,480 If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself. 380 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,200 Someone else needs to hear it. 381 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:29,280 So take a minute right now and share it. 382 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:34,740 As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation 383 00:25:34,740 --> 00:25:40,840 of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.