Summary of Program Requirements

This program encourages teaching hospitals and Graduate Medical Education (GME) consortia to train physicians as clinical researchers to advance biomedical research in New York's academic health centers. Funds from the GME Reform Incentive Pool in each region are dedicated for this program to fund clinical research positions. It is expected that new projects will be awarded in the fall 2011. The requirements for this clinical research program are as follows:

  1. A teaching hospital or GME consortium may submit a project abstract describing a clinical research project(s) for the equivalent of a one or two year (full-time equivalent) clinical research position(s). Positions must be filled by a physician, dentist or podiatrist who is enrolled in or has completed a residency in any specialty. Such physician shall be: (a) a U.S. citizen; national; or permanent resident of the United States; and (b) a graduate of a medical (allopathic or osteopathic), dental or podiatric school located in NYS; a resident or graduate of a residency training program sponsored by an institution located in NYS; or currently reside in NYS. The candidate for the clinical research position does not have to be determined at the time the project is submitted to the Department of Health for review.
  2. The institution will be reimbursed for the cost of the researcher's salary and fringe benefits only, up to a maximum of $75,000 per year per position. The institution is expected to provide an equivalent level of funding (in-kind or from another source(s)) for any additional costs, including overhead, supervision, equipment and other resources to support this position. Expenses for the position in excess of ECRIP funding may be reimbursed by other sources. Each one FTE shall spend no less than 35 hours per week in the position.
  3. The institution will also be awarded $35,000 per year per position for purposes of recruitment and retention of national leaders in biomedical research who can act as faculty and mentors for clinical researchers. The award must be used to provide direct payments of biomedical research faculty (i.e. salary, fringe benefits, sign-on bonuses, etc.). If an institution receives more than one award, the $35,000 can be pooled by the institution for purposes noted in this paragraph.
  4. Hospitals and consortia may submit a project(s) equivalent to no more than one percent (rounded-up to the nearest whole number) of the number of residents training at the teaching hospital in 2000-2001. These numbers have been reduced by the number of positions funded in 2007 for a second year of funding (see listing of the Maximum Number of Clinical Research Positions Teaching Hospitals are Eligible to Submit). The number of projects awarded may be reduced if the number of projects submitted exceeds funding available within a region.
  5. The research position can not be required in order for a resident to complete an initial post-graduate residency. The clinical research experience must exceed the minimum research standards that are required by the residency review committee in the specialty in which the physician has trained or is currently training.
  6. The research position must be a new position, which has not been previously funded by the institution or supported by grant funding in the past three years. This does not preclude an additional year of funding that may be available in future years. New positions that are created as part of an existing research project are allowable. The intent is to create new clinical research positions and not to shift existing positions over to this new funding source. Projects may continue after the end of this funding cycle.
  7. Research projects may have a project director and must have a sponsor-mentor. Such sponsor-mentor must either: (a) be employed or contracted for employment by the hospital or paid through its affiliated faculty practice plan; (b) maintain a faculty appointment at a medical school located in New York State; or (c) collaborate with a researcher from another institution. The hospital, medical school or institution (noted in "a", "b" and "c") must have received at least one National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant since 2005 (see link to NIH Extramural Awards by State and Foreign Site - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/award/state/state.htm.
  8. Research project(s) must be in clinical research, as defined by the NIH Director's Panel on Clinical Research as: (a) patient-oriented research; (b) epidemiologic and behavioral studies; or (c) outcomes research and health services research. In addition, an appropriate Institutional Review Board must approve the project by the time the position is filled.
  9. Research projects must provide (or recruit candidates who have) formalized instruction in clinical research, such as course work in biostatistics, clinical trial design, grant writing and research ethics.
  10. At the completion of the project, the data, methods, results and analysis must be available to present at a scientific meeting and submit for publication in a peer reviewed journal. In addition, the researcher must be willing to present at a research symposium sponsored by the Department of Health at a future date to be determined.
  11. Hospital administrators will be expected to track the career development of physicians participating in the project to determine if such physician pursued further research training or a research career.
  12. Complete project abstracts, submitted through the Health Provider Network (HPN- which requires prior authorization access), will be reviewed by a panel of physicians organized by the Department of Health. The review criteria will include:
    1. resources provided by the institution to support the research position;
    2. experience of the sponsor-mentor in the topic and clinical research project;
    3. experience the institution has in clinical research;
    4. specific methods, data collection and anticipated measurable outcomes that can assess the effectiveness of the research project;
    5. training goals, objectives and experience to assess a future career path in research;
    6. scientific relevance, merit and health implications of the project;
    7. methods to track the career development of the researcher;
    8. plans for disseminating project results at scientific meetings and in peer review journals;
    9. clarity, reasonableness and sufficient detail on the project;
    10. no duplication of projects from the same institution;
    11. researcher qualifications and recruitment strategy suitable for the project; and
    12. submission of reports and adhering to program requirements.
  13. The research position must not be filled before award announcements are made by the Department and preferably by July 1, 2012. The first half of the funds will be paid when the institution has notified the Department of the name of the researcher and other information required by the Department. The second half of the funds will be paid after the Department has received a mid-course project summary that is approved by a panel of physicians. This summary should: (a) contain information on the status of the project; (b) demonstrate progress towards meeting the objective(s); and (c) note any changes to the original project abstract. If a hospital or consortium is funded for more than one position, payments will be made for all projects at one time for the first half of the funds and at one other time for the second half of the funds. The Department may withhold either installment payment if it is determined that a project is not abiding to the program requirements. A final report summarizing the project, training experiences, accomplishments, activities and performance of the clinical researcher must be submitted to the Department when ECRIP project funding ends.

Questions concerning this program should be directed to:

Graduate Medical Education Unit
NYS Department of Health
Corning Tower, Room 1190
Albany, NY 12237
(518) 473-3513
gme@health.state.ny.us

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