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The fellows are expected to be involved in the formulation and design of at least one original research protocol and presented to design at least one original research protocol and present it formally for peer review. Fellows are also encouraged to submit original or review of the literature manuscripts to relevant journals. Time for these endeavors is available through our research rotation. This experience is provided in two month blocks and constitutes roughly a third of the fellowship experience. The fellows’ clinical load during research time is reduced to two half-day clinics, one at JMH, one at the VAMC. They are exposed to ongoing clinical research through our clinical research office and interact with its research staff. They are assigned a faculty physician mentor. The mentor will meet with the fellow on a regular basis (at least weekly) and fill out an evaluation at the end of each two month research rotation.
Main areas of research interest in our division include the immunology of connective tissue diseases, autoantibodies, and clinical aspects of SLE & RA. Faculty members are available as mentors for research projects.
The goal of the research experience is for the fellow to learn sound methodology in designing and performing research studies and the correct interpretation and synthesis of research data.