The Surgical/Subspecialists Clinical Outcomes Research (SCORE) Fellowship within the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research & Delivery Science (ACCORDS) has played a crucial role in providing training, mentorship, and career development support to physician-researchers in the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Since its inception in 2014, the SCORE fellowship has provided existing or new faculty with the foundation to conduct clinical translational or outcomes research and, in the future, to be successful in obtaining grant funding.
“What makes this fellowship stand out is the hands-on access to ACCORDS’ methodological experts and research personnel,” says Rebecca Speer, MA, research training program manager at ACCORDS. “We have a diverse group of mentors who are committed to training the next generation of researchers.”
Training researchers with expert mentors
The SCORE Fellowship is a two-year research training program that consists of several components, including weekly mini-courses, work-in-progress sessions, bi-weekly meetings with mentors, and an intensive grant writing course for second year fellows.
The fellowship requires a commitment of at least 50% protected time, support from the applicant’s division/department, and availability on Monday afternoons for fellowship activities.
The didactic courses help fellows learn a variety of different research skills, as well as focusing on faculty development and leadership skills. During work-in-progress sessions, fellows can present on their research and receive brainstorm support of the entire group.
“The work-in-progress sessions allow them to grow their confidence. Those sessions cannot be understated as crucial,” Speer says. “It is the backbone of the program along with the mentorship with faculty.”
Through the program, fellows receive one-on-one mentorship from the program’s director, Jacinda Nicklas, MD, MPH, MA, associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine; James Feinstein, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics; Dan Matlock, MD, MPH, professor in the Division of Geriatrics and director of the Colorado Program for Patient-Centered Decisions at ACCORDS; Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; and Darcy Thompson, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics.
Fellows also receive quantitative and qualitative expert support from Kathryn Colborn, PhD, MSPH, associate professor in the Division of Health Care Policy and Research and ACCORDS Biostatistics and Analytics Core director; and Brooke Dorsey Holliman, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and ACCORDS Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Core director, respectively.
“Fellows are able to build relationships with their assigned mentor as well as other experts in their field,” Speer says. “The mentorship team supporting the scholars is such an asset early in their career.”
“The SCORE fellowship was exactly what I needed to move my research career forward,” says Kristina Malik, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and second year SCORE fellow. “The expertise of the SCORE mentorship team coupled with the access to the ACCORDS qualitative and quantitative research cores has helped me develop and complete projects with robust methods as well as work towards a NIH K23.”
Program outcomes track success
The SCORE Fellowship has graduated 32 faculty scholars during its 10 years.
Its graduates have published nearly 1,100 peer-reviewed manuscripts in top general medical and specialty journals and have obtained more than $45 million in grant funding from federal, foundation, industry, and institutional sources. More than half of all SCORE graduates have a received a career development award, and 86% of graduates obtain a research grant (R series) or career development award (K series) within 5 years of their graduation date.
SCORE is currently recruiting for the next cohort of fellows. Applications are due by March 15, 2024, for a July 8, 2024, start.
