The Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) is one of six university-based programs to share a $5.2 million grant to offer the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowships (ICRF) to medical students from Duke and other U.S.-based institutions. With funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, this marks the first time Duke University will offer the prestigious opportunity to students starting in the summer of 2013.
DGHI will award up to three fellowships each year over the next four years, with the goal of producing future leaders of global health clinical research. The ICRF program supports students to conduct a 12-month clinical research project in a low- or middle-income country under the mentorship of Duke faculty. Students will receive additional support to engage in professional development activities with their faculty mentor.
Research for the Doris Duke ICRF program at Duke University will be focused in two locations: Moshi, Tanzania and Eldoret, Kenya. Moshi is the site of the decades-old Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre -Duke Collaboration. Faculty research currently under way in Tanzania focuses on topics such as HIV testing, HIV-associated malignancies, orphan health and mycobacterial infections in HIV-positive children. In Eldoret, Duke and Moi University lead the AMPATH Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease Center of Excellence. Researchers are working on a variety of projects that include the treatment and prevention of chronic cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, the prevalence of atherosclerosis, the causes of fever and mental health care.
“We are honored to have received this award which offers an exceptional opportunity for U.S. medical students to engage in a truly in-depth international research experience,” said Dennis Clements, project director of the Doris Duke ICRF program at Duke and senior advisor at DGHI. “The countries we have focused on – Kenya and Tanzania – are wonderful partners and there is enormous potential for our international research collaborators to benefit from this new partnership. Through the partnering of each student with a student at the host site, our students will find their experiences even more enriching.”
Other Doris Duke grant recipients include Harvard Medical School, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine.
Medical students currently enrolled in a U.S.-based medical school are eligible to apply for the clinical research fellowship. The deadline for applications is January 15, 2013. For more information and to apply, visit the Doris Duke at Duke.
The Doris Duke award is one of several funding opportunities available to Duke third-year medical students interested in global health research. Students are encouraged to visit the Third Year Global Health Study Program website to learn more about funding, mentorship and project locations. The program, jointly administered by DGHI and Duke School of Medicine, has supported global health projects by medical students since 2008.
