Promoting Diversity in the Clinical and Translational Research Workforce

Abstract

The positive impact of diversity in increasing the effectiveness of the research workforce has been undeniably demonstrated to be an essential element for achieving health equity. Diversity is also instrumental for the research workforce to advance discovery, eliminate health disparities, improve minority health and achieve effective patient-centered outcomes in the quest for better health. One of the sustainable ways to achieve diversity in the workforce is through training, education and career development of all interested individuals including minority, underserved, underrepresented and populations with special needs. A Hispanic public, academic health center, and a historically black private medical school, have joined efforts in this article to share their experiences in addressing diversity in the clinical and translational research workforce with grant support from the National Institutes of Health. The purpose of this paper is to describe how diversity has been achieved through a concerted effort to recruit and develop underrepresented junior faculty and doctoral candidates for successful careers in clinical and translational research focused on health disparities and minority health. We describe Initiatives designed to achieve diversity in recruitment and development of research teams, together with an evaluation of outcomes to determine the success of the program and its participants.

Scientometric analysis of the Puerto Rico Clinical and Translational Research Consortium (PRCTRC) research publications, 2010–2018

“…As mentioned above, results highlight a strong scientific collaboration among PRCTRC affiliated investigators as shown by the high average CC of 0.82 and the high average DC of 0.991 that were found in our results. This could be explained by the multidisciplinary nature of the PRCTRC and of clinical and translational science [17][18][19][20]. The research areas of the PRCTRC publications evaluated in this study covered clinical and basic medical research, including the PRCTRC focus areas of HIV/AIDS, neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and cancer.…”

Strengthening and Sustaining Inter-Institutional Research Collaborations and Partnerships

“…Both institutions have leveraged CRECD support to extend career development opportunities for junior investigators. A total of 97 MSc graduates from the UPR-MSC CRECD submitted 104 grants; 77 (74%) were funded at approximately $19.1 million, including three R01 awards [ 17 ]. The NIGMS funded National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) aims to increase R-series grant success of underrepresented scientists [ 12 , 13 ].…”

“…Both institutions have leveraged CRECD support to extend career development opportunities for junior investigators. A total of 97 MSc graduates from the UPR-MSC CRECD submitted 104 grants; 77 (74%) were funded at approximately $19.1 million, including three R01 awards [ 17 ].…”

Mentoring Programs by and for a New Generation of Latino Investigators in Behavioral-Social Science HIV Research

“…We have categorized these into two types of programs: Conference-based [21][22][23] and Institute-based. [24][25][26][27][28][29] Positive features of conference-based mentorship programs were availability of mentors/networks, employing national organizations (ie, National Hispanic Science Network, Society for Advancement of Chicanos/ Hispanics & Native Americans in Science), as a major recruitment source and virtual mentorship network. This provided a valuable resource to offer research-professional networking of inadequate acculturation into the scientific enterprise and also to overcome the lack of local expertise of most institutions to support mentorship of Latino investigators.…”