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Research fellows: past, present and future

More than four years ago MUSC established a unique fellowship program to provide its medical students with the opportunity to participate in cardiovascular research on a full-time basis.

This program, provided annually to rising third-year medical students, is funded through and unrestricted research/educational grant from Novartis. The Novartis Fellowship Program gives medical students experience in translating basic research findings to an improved understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease ranks as the most common cause of mortality in South Carolina.

To date, Novartis medical student fellows have presented their research at national meetings and have published seven scientific articles with many others recently submitted.

“It is essential that we continue to engage medical students in research in a meaningful way,” said fellowship program director Francis G. Spinale, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. “This is one of the unique features and responsibilities of academic medical institutions. These students will be the physicians of the future who will be called upon to translate basic medical research findings into improved treatments. We have had an established and successful cardiovascular medical student fellowship program at MUSC for almost a decade and we are very fortunate that Novartis has continued to support this important program.”

Allyson Walker, who will begin interviewing at academic surgery residency programs later this year, said that after two years of basic science memorization, it is often difficult to see how that knowledge will integrate itself into a role as a physician. “You have been stuck in a classroom so long, you can't see the forest for the trees,” she said.

“The two years as a Novartis medical fellow allowed me to combine those first two years of basic science with the skills necessary to become a physician. Learning like this is invaluable in the setting of academic medicine,” Walker said.

William Bradham, currently in third-year medical rotations, said,  “The Novartis fellowship offered me the opportunity to add a unique aspect to my medical education, and to lay a solid groundwork for my professional development as a clinical scientist and medical researcher. The fellowship also allowed me to intensely focus on a field of medicine in which I had a strong  prior interest, and greatly influenced my ambitions of pursuing a career in the  treatment of diseases of the heart.”

For Eric Wilson who has just embarked upon this year's research fellowship program, “The Novartis fellowship will allow me the opportunity to apply the basic science knowledge obtained during the first two years of medical school” Wilson said. “My goal for this year is to gain a better understanding of cardiac disease states, which represent a significant health problem for many individuals.”

All medical students in good academic standing completing the second year of basic science training are eligible to compete for this fellowship program and applications are available in the early spring of each year. 

For more information on this and other basic and clinical research activities in the Cardiothoracic Research program, visit its Web site at <http://www.musc.edu/ctsurgeryresearch>.