Curriculum Overview
Trainees in this program will have the opportunity to engage in several learning sessions and experiences, including foundational coursework, capacity- and skill-building seminars, practicums and exposures, and practical knowledge translation activities. To further the experience of bridging domains, trainees will be paired with other trainees to work together and integrate perspectives addressing real-world medication use issues.
Annual Training Symposium
All successful applicants will be required to participate in the program's Annual Symposium which will take place at the beginning of the program in April. At this symposium, trainees will be able to meet other trainees and mentors who are part of the program. This 2-day event will involve a combination of plenary sessions, small group activities, learning seminars, and skill-building workshops. To get a sense of the symposium content, please see the April 2011 Symposium agenda.
Initial stream-specific "up-skilling" sessions will also be offered at the Annual Training Symposium. These up-skilling sessions are designed to accommodate the diverse educational backgrounds of trainees. They will be tailored to trainees and will serve to give trainees a broad understanding of essential facets of each of the scientific domains outside a trainee's primary focus to prepare them for integrative sessions that incorporate two or more scientific domains. For example, for a biosciences trainee who has not had any exposure to health services and policy research, they would have the opportunity to participate in an "up-skilling" session that covers basic concepts and methods used in this domain.
Group Educational Events
Trainees are encouraged (and partially supported) to attend and present at relevant conferences during their year with the program. Resources are available to assist trainees in the development and presentation of posters and presentations.
One-to-One Mentorship
Trainees will have two mentors during their time with the program. The primary mentor will be their graduate program or postgraduate program supervisor. The secondary mentor will be from another scientific domain that is outside of the trainee's primary domain of work. For example, if the trainee is specializing in the biosciences then they would be assigned a mentor from the clinical therapeutics, population health and epidemiology or health services and policy research.
Integrative Course
Trainees are expected to participate in a number of integrative courses that are held in an interactive, problem-based, web-based format with synchronous communication and interaction. The integrative courses consist of several on line synchronous sessions on integrative concepts in drug safety and effectiveness: for example, the medication use process, pharmacoepidemiology, statiistical concepts, basic, clinical population health and health policy levels, real world drug safety and effectiveness in relation to clinical practice and health policy, and how pharmacogenetics and molecular pharmacology can be applied in clinical therapeutics. The case studies presented in our integrative sessions included discussion and expert opinion on ethical issues that arise across scientific domains as they relate to drug safety and effectiveness.
Basic Concepts Sessions
Mentors will offer a seminar series consisting of lectures in current topics and ideas in medication safety and effectiveness. Trainees will determine participation in the seminars based on the Learning Plan that they develop at the onset of the program.
Research Skill-building Seminars
All trainees will participate in several capacity- and skill-building seminars designed to offer practical knowledge for areas that future researchers and decision makers need for success in this area. Some seminars are offered at the Annual Symposium, while others are offered via a web-based module format.
DSECT Trainee Seminars
There is no further information regarding trainee seminars at this time.
Practicums and Exposures
All trainees have the option to engage in one practicum placement that will involve a practical training experience in either basic research in the field (pharma, academia), or applied research in the field (academia, government). For those who have not had exposure to clinical work, a brief clinical exposure in geriatrics, internal medicine, clinical pharmacology, or primary care is offered. Travel stipends are offered to help facilitate uptake in this component of the program.
Observed Structured Knowledge Translation Experience (OSKTE)
Each trainee will be asked to complete a formative observed structured knowledge translation experience, or OSKTE. This experience consists of a planned interaction whereby two trainees, each from a different scientific domain (e.g. one from basic science and one from population health or one from clinical therapeutics and one from health services research), meet with a live panel of actual policy makers. The trainees present research findings and policy advice that are aligned with a predetermined topical issue and then participate in a semi-structured dialogue with the panel of policy makers. The feedback session allows time for the trainee to provide a self-assessment, training program mentor feedback (some mentors will also be present as observers) and policy maker panel feedback.
Trainees will be provided with guidance to prepare for the OSKTE, including information about the topic to be presented and discussed. The presentation may include tasks such as interpreting drug safety data, providing biological rationale for a drug benefit and risk-profile, recommending research design options based on predesigned scenarios or presenting research to policy makers. Key stakeholder representatives and policy makers will be invited to be examiners.