Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Cincinnati
Clinical Studies Assistant Research Fellowship

The Clinical Studies Assistant (CSA) is an integral part of the research infrastructure of the Department of Emergency Medicine.  The pre-requisite for the position is undergraduate schooling with an emphasis in biology or science.  The CSA is hired through the University of Cincinnati as a Student Worker. They obtain hospital privileges and maintain requirements of University of Cincinnati Physicians (UCP) for employment.  The CSA is directly supervised by the Research Team Administrative Coordinator, but also the Coordinating Team and Research Directors of the Clinical Trials Center. The CSA is supervised when they are performing their role by the Emergency Medicine Faculty Physicians while on-shift.

The research internship is an opportunity for students to participate in research in the acute care clinical environment, interacting with patients and clinical staff. The internship is geared towards those individuals thinking of a career in health care or clinical research. The student is expected to participate in various educational activities to develop an understanding of the clinical practice of emergency medicine, as well as the theory and practice of research. Students are required to complete a group research project during their internship.

The program runs for a 10 month period, beginning in August each year, and ending in May. The first few weeks are spent in small groups learning about anatomy and physiology, clinical research ethics and human subjects protections, and the research studies ongoing within the department. On completion of initial training, and once approved by the hospitals to work in the clinical environment, students will spend about 30 hours a week interacting with patients while screening, enrolling and collecting data for the diverse array of ongoing projects. Activities range from counseling patients about their health behavior, to conducting new investigational testing. Students will also attend about 2 hours of Grand Rounds each week, with mandatory attendance at those lectures geared towards evidence-based practice and reports of research findings. The remaining time each week will be spent working on a mentored group research project.

During September and October, students will participate in a research education program, which will cover development of a hypothesis, designing a clinical research study to test the hypothesis, writing the protocol, developing a budget, designing data collection forms, preparing regulatory documentation, and analyzing and interpreting results. The program is part didactic, part practical. Eight lectures of about 20-30 minutes in length are given, and immediately followed by a practical session lasting about one and a half hours in which the students build on the lectures and apply the information to the design of a research study. The practical sessions are mentored by a biostatistician with extensive experience in all modes of emergency department based research. On completion of the program, students are expected to prepare, as a group, a formal research protocol for submission to the IRB. They will be expected to implement the project between November and March. Some funds are available to support research materials, but the student's are expected to conduct all of the work themselves with guidance from a faculty mentor. As the internship draws to a close, students are expected to write up their research findings in the form of a manuscript and, if satisfying internal review criteria, the manuscript will be submitted to an appropriate peer-reviewed journal.

The research project will be evaluated by the Department of Emergency vice-chair for research using pass/fail criteria.

Clinical - Employee		Educational - Student
Training (A&P, research ethics, ongoing trials)		Attendance to Grand Rounds weekly 2-4hrs
Work 30hrs/week in clinical setting		Research education program - preparation and submission of research protocol to IRB
Screening & enrolling patients in clinical trials		Attendance and participation in Journal Club - monthly
Counseling patients, conducting testing		Mentorship with faculty member
Paid hourly		Stipend (proposed)

Note: Applications are only accepted from January 1st to March 1st and prospective fellows will be notified by April 1st each year.