Evidence shows that underrepresented scientists and clinicians are needed to attend to the needs of growing populations affected by diseases of the cardiovascular system (1,2). The rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors, are increasing in low-income groups worldwide and capable, highly-motivated and well-trained underrepresented individuals are needed because underrepresented research professionals are more likely to work in areas related to underserved minorities and low-income populations (1,2). Moreover, medical researchers of underrepresented backgrounds tend to have a cultural understanding of minority communities, facilitating their potential to implement effective interventions (3). In cardiovascular medicine, the need for well-trained underrepresented scientists is especially urgent. To address this issue, in 2006 the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) established the Summer Institute Program to Increase Diversity in Health-Related Research (SIPID) (4) later renamed Program to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related-Research (PRIDE). The goal is to train multidisciplinary scientists and clinicians from racial/ethnic groups and/or groups with disabilities that are underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences. While multiple SIPID and PRIDE programs were funded and provided mentored training in research related to heart, lung, blood and sleep research, they had a similar training format of intensive face-to-face mentored training during 2 consecutive summers and a shorter mid-year meeting with program faculty and their mentors. In addition, all programs provided mentees access to one or more experienced mentors to help develop research-projects and grant-proposals, culminating in the submission of a grant application within two years of completing training. State University of New-York Downstate-Medical-Center at Brooklyn has been the recipient of both SIPID and PRIDE awards to increase diversity in cardiovascular health-related research (SIPID/PRIDE-CVD). This paper describes SIPID/PRIDE-CVD program and represents an evaluation of the first 9 years (2006–2015) of the program. The program consists of a fully supported 3-week summer research education and mentoring experience in 2 consecutive summers. The training program included fundamental training by interdisciplinary faculty in the areas of health-disparities, mentoring partnership between mentors and mentees based on mutual research interests, capacity building by training and coaching mentees in grant writing and career development strategies to develop skills needed for independent research.
A total of 53-mentees were matriculated to SIPID/PRIDE-CVD program and 52 completed both summers; 1-mentee was unable to complete the second summer. The majority of the 52-mentees were female (79%) and African American (85%), with 7 Hispanic (13%) and one Native American. Most (71%) participants had a PhD or EdD while 27% had MD degrees, and one person had a combined MD/PhD. The mentees were recruited from 42 universities in 24 states nationwide.
Table 1 shows the numbers of grant proposals submitted and obtained by mentees before, during and after training. It is notable that 63% of mentees (33 of the 52) submitted a total of 72 grant; 58% obtained 40 peer-reviewed grants from NIH and non-NIH funding agencies. Grants funded by NIH included 6 K-series awards, 2 R01s, 5 R03s and 1 R34. At the time of this writing, an additional 24 NIH grants from 15-mentees are pending (either under review or under revision) and include 7 K-series awards, 4 R01s, 7 R21s, 4 R03s and 2 diversity supplements, as well as 8 pending non-NIH grants from 7-mentees (6 AHA and 2 RWF). This is a considerable accomplishment since PRIDE-CVD cohorts 1, 2 and 3 are respectively only 3, 2 and 1-year out of training. Before joining SIPID/PRIDE-CVD, the 52-mentees had a total of 8 grants (4 NIH and 4 non-NIH) from 7-mentees. Finally, research productivity measured by number of publications more than tripled (3.7 fold increase) after mentees completed the training (from 125 to 467 publications). Twenty-one (40%) of the 52-mentees received promotion to the rank of Associate Professor after training.
Table 1.
SIPID/PRIDE-CVD Outcomes (n = 52 mentees).
| Before Training | During Training | After Summer B | Total During and After Training | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Received NIH Career Awards K’s Pending K’s |
2 (2) | 3 (3) | 3 (3) | 6 (6) |
| 0 | 1 (1) | 6 (5) | 7 (6) | |
|
Received NIH Research Awards R03’s (*) indicates 1 R34 Pending R03’s |
1 (1) | 3 (3) | 3* (3) | 6 (6) |
| 0 | 1 (1) | 3 (3) | 4 (4) | |
|
Received NIH Research Awards R21’s Pending R21’s |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 3 (2) | 4 (4) | 7 (6) | |
|
Received NIH Research Awards R01’s Pending R01’s |
0 | 0 | 2 (2) | 2 (2) |
| 0 | 0 | 4 (3) | 4 (3) | |
|
Received Other NIH Grants Other Pending NIH Grants |
1 (1) | 4 (3) | 4 (3) | 8 (6) |
| 0 | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | 2 (2) | |
|
Received Non-NIH Awards Pending Non-NIH Awards |
4 (3) | 8 (8) | 10 (7) | 18 (12) |
| 0 | 1 (1) | 7 (6) | 8 (7) | |
| Total grants | 8 (7) | 25 (18) | 47 (25) | 72 (33) |
| Total Publications | 125 | 179 | 270 | 467 |
| Rank at least Associate Professor | 1 | 0 | 21 | 21 |
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of mentees who achieved that outcome metric (a single mentee could have received more than one grant, for example). Other NIH grants include diversity supplement; Minority Fellowship Program Clinical Training Grant in Nursing (T06); Collaborative Research Opportunities (U01); Clinical Research Scholar Supplement (M01); P20 and P60 as PI for a portion of the grant. Non-NIH peer-reviewed awards include American Heart Association; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Department of Veterans Affairs; Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Department of Agriculture.
As a result, mentees have gained career development tools, an understanding of research methods, confidence in their ability to pursue grant opportunities at NIH and elsewhere, and become knowledgeable about health-disparities focused research especially in cardiovascular diseases. Most have also completed research grant applications of which more than half were funded, formed a network with underrepresented colleagues and faculty, and have been inspired to pursue research careers.
Acknowledgments
The authors express appreciation and gratitude to the SIPID/PRIDE-CVD mentees, mentors, and faculty who contributed to this training program. The authors also thank program staff, Dr Girardin Jean-Louis, Dr Judith Mitchell, Freddy Zizi, Kennon Weatherhead and Denise Dickerson as well as NIH staff, Dr Nakela Cook and Dr Jared Jobe for their valuable contributions.
This work was funded by NHLBI grants R25HL-105446 and R25-HL-085042 to MB; R25-HL-10-5408 to TR. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Footnotes
Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Disclosure: None for all authors.
References
- 1.Walker KO, Moreno G, Grumbach K. The association among specialty, race, ethnicity, and practice location among California physicians in diverse specialties. J Natl Med Assoc. 2012;104:46–52. doi: 10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30126-7. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Rodriguez CJ, Allison M, Daviglus ML, et al. Status of cardiovascular disease and stroke in Hispanics/Latinos in US: a science advisory from AHA. Circulation. 2014;130:593–625. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000071. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Komaromy M, Grumbach K, Drake M, et al. Role of black and Hispanic physicians in providing health care for underserved populations. N Engl J Med. 1996;334:1305–10. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199605163342006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Rice TK, Liu L, Jeffe DB, et al. Enhancing the Careers of Under-Represented Junior Faculty in Biomedical Research: Summer-Institute-Program to Increase-Diversity (SIPID) J Natl Med Assoc. 2014;106:50–57. doi: 10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30070-5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]