About the Program

Directors

Barbara DiCicco-Bloom, RN, PhD, Director

Benjamin F. Crabtree, Associate Director

John Scott, MD, PhD, Associate Director

Program Overview

This NRSA two-year postdoctoral Fellowship program combines research in a multidisciplinary setting with an option of earning a MPH degree. The Primary Care/Health Services Research Postdoctoral Fellowship is designed for motivated individuals who want to pursue academic research careers in a primary care discipline. The program offers the option of an "apprenticeship" process in which fellows work as a team member in an ongoing funded research project under the guidance of established research mentors.

Faculty

Barbara DiCicco-Bloom, RN, PhD is Director, and Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD and John Scott, MD, PhD are Associate Directors of the NRSA Fellowship. The Fellowship's Executive Committee includes representation from each of the RWJMS primary care disciplines and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health. Faculty members serving on the Fellowship Executive Committee includes Jeffrey Carson, MD (the Richard C. Reynolds Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine), Kitaw Demissie, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine, RWJMS and UMDNJ School of Public Health), Robert Like, MD, MS (Director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity), Judith Neubauer, PhD (RWJMS Associate Dean for Research), George Rhoads, MD, MPH (Endowed Professor of Public Health) and Denise Rodgers, MD (Associate Dean for Community Health and Professor of Family Medicine). The committee meets annually and works closely with the Director in the overall development and implementation of the training program. Drs. Crabtree, Carson, Demissie, and Rhoads also serve as faculty mentors and/or trainers.

The National Advisory Council includes prominent primary care researchers from around the United States. The members include nationally recognized experts in practice-based research, fellowship and faculty training, and qualitative and quantitative methods. The Council members are involved on an individual basis in periodic discussions of program implementation and serve as seminar speakers during visits to RWJMS.

Staff

Cynthia Duncan Robinson

The Program Offers:

Individualized training and hands on research experience tailored to the Fellow's research interests and training needs.

Formal course work at the University with an opportunity to obtain an MPH degree.
Flexibility in training curriculum.
Specialized seminars, research rounds and skills workshops designed to meet specific interests and training needs of fellows.
Diverse research opportunities ranging from statistical analysis of large databases with clinical and policy implications to case and practice-based studies employing both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Collaborative research projects with a variety of academic and non-academic organizations.
Support for participation in local and national professional conferences and meetings.
Opportunities to be socialized into academic primary care and to meet senior investigators from around the United States.

Fellowship Assistance

Supported by Federal NRSA grants, two training positions are offered each year. The fellowship term is usually two years. The basic level of stipend support is governed by Federal guidelines for National Research Service Awards, and depends on the number of years of relevant experience after completing the doctoral degree. Awards also cover tuition and fees for course work, health and life insurance, and support for travel to professional meetings.

Location

UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the UMDNJ/School of Public Health are located in Central New Jersey, adjacent to the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses of Rutgers University. The Administrative offices of the Research Fellowship and the Department of Family Medicine are housed in the New Brunswick campus of the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The cultural environment includes several repertory theater companies and a large selection of concerts and lectures. Manhattan and Philadelphia are an hour away and can be reached with convenient trains and buses. The beaches of the Jersey shore and the mountains of Northwest New Jersey and Pennsylvania are also within less than an hour's distance.