Developing population health scientists: Findings from an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program

Abstract

Highlights RWJF Health & Society Scholars (HSS) program outcomes evaluated. HSS alumni have higher scholarly productivity and impact than control group. HSS alumni are more engaged in population health research than controls. HSS alumni and controls are similar on other outcome measures. Training programs can be evaluated with adequate attention to selection bias.

Facilitating cancer systems epidemiology research

“…The current academic infrastructure is designed to develop scientists that are experts in specific fields/disciplines [22,71], whereas systems approaches to epidemiology research require breadth of training across disciplines. Several training programs have supported this multidisciplinary model [72][73][74]. Another important training need is in the areas of data science, informatics, and computational modeling, particularly for population scientists.…”

Health Data for New York City Overview: Advancing Health Equity through Policy-Relevant Collaborative Research

“…There are an array of initiatives that aim to promote multi-institutional, multi-sectoral collaboration; expand access to available population health data; or provide mentorship for early- and mid-career academic researchers [ 3 , 4 ]. We hypothesized that a program that combined these core elements in the context of New York City (NYC), which has a diverse population, large urban health department, and many academic institutions, would provide a unique opportunity to advance actionable health equity-focused research.…”

“…Applied public health researchers within a local health department may have limited access to expertise in advanced analytic methods or familiarity with agency data resources outside of their individual program. Health department employees often do not have adequate time for research, analysis, and writing, although research may be of interest and helpful to elevate careers.There are an array of initiatives that aim to promote multi-institutional, multi-sectoral collaboration; expand access to available population health data; or provide mentorship for early-and mid-career academic researchers [3,4]. We hypothesized that a program that combined these core elements in the context of New York City (NYC), which has a diverse Michele Calvo and Elizabeth Kelman contributed equally to this work.…”

Designing and Implementing a Curriculum to Support Health Equity Research Leaders: The Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Experience

“…Research has often been used to further advantage researchers and institutions conducting the research, rather than being led by and used to increase the power of communities that have the most at stake with the results of the research. Previous research training programs have produced strong evidence of benefit to researchers (i.e., publications, promotions, etc) and their research institutions, but less evidence of benefit to communities and specific policy actions (11). In short, to have maximum impact on advancing health equity, research needs to be done differently.…”