Clinical-Scientist Training Program - go to program home
C. Program Management:
1. Program Director, Harry A. Quigley, MD, is the A. Edward Maumenee Professor of Ophthalmology, Director of Glaucoma Services and Director of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology. He has been at Wilmer for 30 years and has been the principal investigator of several R01 grants, the principal investigator of the former T32 Wilmer Fellowship Training Grant (for 10 years), a member of the Vision Research Review Committee for 4 years (the study section reviewing training programs for the National Eye Institute), present member of AED Study Section, the elected head of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology for 5 years (the largest vision research organization in the world), and elected Editor-in-Chief for a 5 year term of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (the most cited journal in visual neuroscience). At Wilmer, he chairs the Research Committee.
Dr. Quigley has served as personal mentor for more than 50 clinician-scientists, in F32 and T32 fellowships, K08 and K23 programs. Among these, a representative list of those now in full-time academic positions, each of whom has successfully competed for R01 funding after training is given below:
Dr. Quigley directs the Public Health Ophthalmologist (PHO) program also described above. His research interests include the pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis and therapy of glaucoma, along with other ocular diseases. He has been a principal investigator in clinical trials, disease prevalence surveys, longitudinal observational studies, as well as laboratory research. He was the ophthalmologist for eye disease prevalence surveys in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and among Hispanic persons. He developed methods for field diagnosis of glaucoma, correlated clinical and pathological features of glaucoma, and developed imaging techniques for glaucoma diagnosis.
2. Program Advisory Committee: The CS Program Advisory Committee will consist of Oliver Schein, MD MPH, Douglas Jabs, MD,MBA, Don Zack, MD PhD, Peter Campochiaro MD, Sheila West, PhD, and Harry Quigley, MD.
Oliver Schein, MD, MPH, is the Burton E. Grossman Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute with a joint appointment in Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has been at Wilmer for twelve years and has been principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous federally funded clinical research grants. Dr. Schein's principal research interests have been in the application of epidemiologic methods to ocular disease and technology. His research has been exclusively "patient-oriented" using a variety of different methodologies including case-control designs, survey sampling, observational cohorts, population-based studies, randomized clinical trials, decision analysis, and techniques to assess patient preferences. In 1999, Dr. Schein was awarded a Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient Research (K-24) in recognition of past productivity and mentorship in this arena. Dr. Schein's principal research interests and accomplishments have related to outcomes of cataract surgery, health services research related to cataract management, epidemiology of dry eye, and technology assessment. Dr. Schein serves on the American Academy of Ophthalmology Quality of Care Committee and has been a co-author of its Preferred Practice Pattern on Cataract Surgery. Dr. Schein has acted as research mentor to a variety of young physicians and Public Health School degree candidates over the past decade.
Douglas Jabs, MD is Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He chairs the NIH-funded SOCA Research Group, and the multi-disciplinary Cytomegalovirus Retinits and Viral Resistance Study Group, and holds a K24 award: "Mentored Fellowship in Uveitis and Clinical Investigation", whose goal is to mentor clinical fellows in patient-oriented research and to develop independent investigators. This program is based in the Department of Ophthalmology, and interacts with the multidisciplinary programs at the Hopkins School of Medicine, and with the Center for Clinical Trials at Hopkins School of Public Health. His trainees participate in a structured schedule of didactic course work followed by a research project, culminating in a thesis leading to an advanced degree in the relevant area. Dr. Jabs has been recipient of such honors and awards as the Research to Prevent Blindness Olga Keith Wiess Scholar Award, the Research to Prevent Blindness Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award, the Research to Prevent Blindness Senior Scientific Investigator, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Award, and the Ethel Baxter Award for Excellence in Research from Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation. He is President of the American Uveitis Society for 2000-2002. He served on the National Eye Institute's Visual Sciences A Study Section from 1994 to 1998 and currently is on the National Eye Institute Intramural Program Data and Safety Monitoring Committee. He currently holds four NIH awards, including two ROI's, the Chairmanship of a multicenter clinical trials groups, and a K-24 award for training clinicians in patient-oriented research. He has held funding from the National Eye Institute since 1986 for laboratory work on ocular immunopathology in animal models of autoimmunity.
Sheila K. West, PhD is the El Maghraby Professor of Ophthalmology, and has participated in mentored training for several clinician-scientists. She is past President of ARVO. She is jointly appointed in the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health (Epidemiology). She directed a community?based study of prevalence of trachoma in Tanzania that developed a successful intervention in hyper endemic areas, producing the present World Health Organization guidelines for this disease. Her publications documented for the first time the association between cataract and both cigarette smoking and sunlight exposure in field studies of Chesapeake Bay Watermen. She recently led the Hispanic Eye Study (Projecto VER) in Arizona, determining that glaucoma is highly prevalent as a cause of blindness in this growing population.
Peter Campochiaro, MD is the Eccels Professorship of Ophthalmology, and has received awards for the study of the clinical manifestations and pathogenesis of retinal diseases. He has been a principal in clinical trials of surgical therapy and nutrition related to eye disease. His present interests include gene therapy and transplantation treatments for degenerations of the retina. He is the principal investigator on two NIH grants and a co-investigator on two others. He is the principal investigator on the Wilmer Center Grant from the Foundation Fighting Blindness. He has numerous other grants from organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Health Assistance Foundation.
Don Zack M.D., Ph.D., Guerrieri Professor of Genetic Engineering and Molecular Ophthalmology, has been at the Wilmer Institute since 1988. He sees patients as part of the Wilmer Glaucoma Service, and runs a lab directed at understanding the molecular biology of retinal diseases, including glaucoma, AMD and other retinal degenerations, and diabetic retinopathy. He is actively participating in the new field merging molecular genetics and epidemiology. He has trained over 20 MD and/or Ph.D. sudents/fellows.
Plan for on-going evaluation: The CS Program Advisory Committee meets quarterly to review activities and progress of the trainees. This monitoring includes review of didactic course material completed, as well as review of additional courses taken toward the fulfillment of training goals. The interaction between each trainee and their mentor(s) will be monitored by quarterly reporting of progress, needs, and failures from the student and teacher, separately. Annually, the Committee and its staff person will summarize the status and progress of each candidate and each mentor. The committee will pay specific attention to the percent of time spent by trainees in various activities in relation to their individual training program. Review of financial and budgetary interactions of the K12 program and the related financial needs of trainees will be within the committee's mandate. Retention and satisfaction of trainees will be maximized by a questionnaire administered to each participant and by personal interviews between committee members not in the mentor group for that trainee and the individual in question.
The committee matches prospective candidates with mentors and assists in the reorientation of mentored programs that are in need of alteration due to change in interest or personnel. It provides liaison between the School of Medicine, the School of Hygiene, and trainees, in terms of credentialing, benefits, tuition, and communications.
In its recruitment activities, the committee advertise the availability of positions in the Program nationally. Specific attention is given to advertisements aimed to identified minorities and women. A high proportion of our trainees in clinician-scientist roles are female, as is a substantial proportion of faculty mentors. Prospective candidates have access through our Wilmer Web site and by mail to application information, procedures, and potential mentors with their research programs. The committee encourages pre-selection interview and informational meetings. It provides access to contact information for past trainees who can provide role modeling for prospective trainees. It will select at least one new trainee per year. The candidate is selected based on the probability that he/she will develop into a clinician investigator as well as the appropriateness of the potential mentor-men tee relationship that can be envisioned prior to commencement of the program.
D. Practical Information for Potential Candidates
Those seeking to begin the application process should take the following initial several steps:
1) decide what type of research they would like to enter: laboratory-based, clinical trial, field epidemiology.
2) choose an area of research in which they will work: (retinal degeneration, glaucoma diagnosis, genetic epidemiology of corneal dystrophy, retinal neuronal development).
3) select a possible mentor or mentor group from among faculty in Wilmer or elsewhere within Johns Hopkins (occasionally, training is partly carried out with a mentor not at Hopkins).
4) contact either Oliver Schein or Harry Quigley to register initial interest and gather initial information about your possible program (oschein@jhmi.edu or hquigley@jhmi.edu).5) complete the enclosed application materials.
Typically, the most competitive applications include a draft of a research training program, written with the mentor(s) assistance, that could be submitted independently for K08 or K23 support.
The program mandates at least 80% time (effort) during regular working hours be devoted to research training. This allows 1 day per week of clinical activity and surgery.
Eligibility is limited by government regulation to those with these qualifications:
1) a clinical doctoral degree (MD, OD, DDS, DMD, DO, DVM, PharmD) or those with a PhD or other doctoral degree in clinical disciplines, such as clinical psychology, nursing, clinical genetics, audiology, rehabilitation.
2) US citizenship or resident alien status (green card).
3) candidates cannot have previously been prinicipal investigator on the following grant mechanisms (R01, R29, any K award, P01, P50)
Salary is determined individually but may be up to $180,000 (the NIH salary cap) per year, though it is typically equated to the salary level of an Assistant Professor in the division of the Department that is home for the clinical activities of the candidate. Up to $30,000 per year is available for research costs, coverage of mentor salary, payment of tuition for degree programs, etc. Salary may be supplemented from departmental funds under separate negotiation with the Chairperson.
E. Requirements for application to the Wilmer CS Training Program
1) A completed application and CV must be sumitted to Pat Tracey, Administrative Assistant to Dr. Harry Quigley, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Wilmer 122, Baltimore, Maryland 21287-9019, (ptracey@jhmi.edu) by October 15 for the program starting the following July. Applications are sometimes accepted during the year.
2) The applicant must make prior arrangements with a mentor/sponsor at The Wilmer Institute (see Appendix A for listing of past mentors). A draft application similar to the format of a K08 or K23 will strengthen the application to the Clinical Scientist Program. (for descriptions, see: http://www.nei.nih.gov/funding/k08.htm and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not99-125.html).
3) The applicant should provide the specific aims for the planned proposal. Notification of acceptance or rejection will occur on November 15. Acceptance into the K12 program guarantees support for up to 5 years.
4) Three letters of reference and a letter from the research mentor(s) and clinical mentor (if any) must also be received by October 15. The mentors' letters should evaluate the candidate's potential as a future clinician--scientist and should outline the plan for the training program.
5) Copies of completed applications for outside funding should be submitted to Dr. Schein and, although not required, may strengthen the application.
F. Application for the Wilmer CS Training Program
Download a pdf fill-in form
G. Wilmer Mentors and Their Research Activities
1. Cornea and Cataract
John Gottsch
Oliver Schein
2. Bioengineering, Ocular Imaging, Drug Delivery Systems
Ran Zeimer
3. Epidemiology
Sheila West
James Tielsch
Joanne Katz
Emily West
David Friedman
Nathan Congdon
4. Clinical Trials
Barbara Hawkins
Oliver Schein
5. Glaucoma: Clinical and Basic
Harry Quigley
David Friedman
Nathan Congdon
Henry Jampel
Don Zack
6. Ocular Genetics
Olaf Sundin
Don Zack
7. Immunology/Uveitis/AIDS
Douglas Jabs
JP Dunn
Robert Weinberg
8. NeuroOphthalmology/Basic Neuroscience
Neil Miller
Jeremy Nathans
Paul Hoffman
9. Experimental Pathology
Harry Quigley
10. Psychophysics
Robert Massof
Kathleen Turano
Gislin Dagnelie
11. Retinal Development
Ruben Adler
12. Pediatric Ophthalmology/Clinical Trials
Michael Repka
David Guyton
Kurt Simons
13. Medical Retinal Diseases/Clinical Trials
Neil Bressler
Susan Bressler
Peter Campochiaro
Andrew Schachat
14. Vitreoretinal Disease/Experimental Retinal Disease
James Handa
Peter Campochiaro
Gerard Lutty
Stanley Vinores
Julia Haller
