The faculty approved a proposal from the Graduate School to create a master's program in clinical and translational research at its meeting March 1.
The Corporation will decide on approval of the proposal at its May meeting.
The master's program would join biostatistics, behavioral and social sciences intervention, public health and epidemiology as the fifth master's degree program in the Department of Community Health.
Clinical and translational science concerns the conversion of academic medical science into something of practical use for patients. The BrainGate project, led in part by John Donoghue PhD'79 P'09 P'12, director of the Institute of Brain Science and professor of neuroscience, is an example of a team using this approach. Donoghue's research led to the creation of a marketable robotic arm for people with paralysis, limb loss or neurological disease. But bringing science from the lab bench to the doctor's office can be a long and difficult process, which is where the master's program comes in.
The new program would bring "substantial opportunities for advancing research, particularly translating basic science findings to clinical and community settings," wrote Patrick Vivier '85 MD'89, associate professor of community health and pediatrics, who would head the program, in an e-mail to The Herald.
"The primary target audience will be the clinical faculty and trainees, as well as basic scientists who wish to learn more about clinical and epidemiological research," wrote Terrie Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy and professor of community health, in an e-mail to The Herald.
But undergraduate students can still benefit from the program, she wrote. "As more courses are developed, undergraduates have a wider array of potential course choices." There will also be more research opportunities available to undergrads due to increased faculty size, she wrote.
The proposal comes at a time when the public health program is undergoing significant organizational change. The University has been working since 2006 to establish a Center for Clinical and Translational Studies, but Wetle wrote the master's program would be independent of the center. The public health program has not been a major player in planning for the center, she added.
The Department of Community Health has split into four sections — biostatistics, behavioral and social sciences, epidemiology and health services policy and practice. If the program establishes a school of public health, the sections would fall under its purview.
A school of public health "will enhance our ability to recruit faculty to our programs, enhance the applicant pool of students for our (graduate) programs, enhance our image nationally and internationally and make us eligible to apply for external funding that is currently restricted to schools of public health," Wetle wrote.
