The Department of Biostatistics at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia now offers a master's degree program in Clinical Research and Biostatistics. Established in 1997, the Master of Science in Clinical Research and Biostatistics program is specifically designed to satisfy the needs of those wishing to pursue clinical and/or health services research.
To become successful clinical researchers, clinicians need extensive training, not only in their clinical content area, but also in the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, reporting, and dissemination of clinical research. Likewise, clinicians wishing to successfully conduct patient-level outcomes or health services research need training in the skills required for this research. Common to both needs is training in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics-basic sciences for clinical medicine. Increasingly, also common to both needs is training in health economics and services organization--the anatomy and physiology of health care delivery.
To provide this training at Virginia Commonwealth University, courses from the standard M.S. in Biostatistics program, newly created courses and select courses were combined to create the M.S. in Clinical Research and Biostatistics. Included in the program are required credit hours dedicated to directed, independent research. Students, under the guidance of a research advisory committee, will choose a research project according to their interests and intended career goals. Students are expected to develop a research proposal, select a research advisor and form a research advisory committee before the completion of 18 credit hours of core course work. The research advisory committee will be composed of a clinician as advisor, at least one additional clinician and at least one faculty member of the Department of Biostatistics. Results of the project are required to be submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal and presented to the research advisory committee.
Through these diverse and extensive experiences, the M.S. in Clinical Research and Biostatistics program offers the most comprehensive approach to training the clinician-researcher.
Wally Smith, M.D.
Professor and Chair, Division of Quality Health Care
Clinical epidemiology, medical decision making, quality health care
Russell Boyle, M.A.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Clinical trials, data management
James Shaw, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Cancer screening, decision making in oncology
Lynne Penberthy, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, Division of Quality Health Care
Cancer epidemiology, secondary datasets, cancer prevention
Michael Edmond, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
Clinical epidemiology, hospital care quality, resident training
Richard Wenzel, M.D., M.Sc.
Professor and Chair, Department of Internal Medicine
Clinical epidemiology, hospital care quality
Donna McClish, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Clinical epidemiology, medical decision making
Diane Wilson, Ed.D.,M.S., R.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
Preventive medicine, community health