Clinical Electives Program: Medical Informatics

The NIH has a clinical electives program in medical informatics. Here's some information:

Rotation Description
This is an introductory elective in medical informatics for students who already have some experience with the application of computers and information systems, i.e., experience with computing in clinical medicine or biomedical research.

The four to eight week sessions of the elective include an extensive lecture series offering an overview of the state-of-the-art in medical informatics. The lectures are presented by research staff from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and other institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by guest speakers from other research centers. The lectures cover a number of topics including medical informatics applications on the World Wide Web; telemedicine; the Unified Medical Language System; the Visible Human project; medical expert systems; information management for biotechnology research; image analysis, manipulation, and retrieval; machine learning in the biomedical domain; and medical language processing. The NLM's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications offers students an outstanding hardware and software environment for system development.

Fifth Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media

Fifth Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media

August 9 – 11, 2011
Omni Hotel
Atlanta, GA

The National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media brings together academia, public health researchers and practitioners from all levels of government and private sectors, and provides a forum for cross-disciplinary dialogue. Come meet with colleagues and shape the practice of health communication, marketing, and media.

Sponsored by:

Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Cancer Institute

and

National Public Health Information Coalition

To register or learn about the conference, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/NCHCMM

Fundamentals of Clinical Research

The Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) has a two-day course coming up. It's called: Fundamentals of Clinical Research

Sept. 10-11, 2009, Houston, TX
Oct. 15-16, 2009, Alexandria, VA

Fundamentals of Clinical Research is designed for those who aspire to the following roles: clinical research professionals managing studies at clinical research sites or monitoring studies, product managers, clinical investigators, institutional review board members, clinical pharmacologists, and research pharmacists.

Here are the learning objectives (you can receive continuing education credits):

* Discuss the main historical events which led to the increasing regulation of the development of medicinal products, devices and biologics
* Explain the differences in the development processes for medicinal products, devices and biologics
* Identify the roles and responsibilities of clinical research professionals in the overall process of conducting a clinical trial and how each professional contributes to that process
* Apply the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) in their daily functions
* Identify the main regulations which govern the practice of clinical research
* Observe the additional rules applicable to research funded by the Federal government and bodies like the NCI and NIH
* Identify ethical issues involved with conducting clinical research
* Identify the protections given to human subjects in research
* Describe the process of obtaining informed consent from human subjects
* Describe the respective roles and responsibilities of clinical research professionals notably Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs), and Clinical Research Associates (CRAs)
* Identify and evaluate Unanticipated Problems
* Define the criteria for reporting unanticipated problems and adverse events

If you're interested in pursuing a career in clinical research, then you may want to evaluate your skills and competencies based on the learning objectives listed above. How well can you explain/identify/describe/discuss/etc. each of the points listed above?

For more information about this course, click here.

Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development

This is a great book from my Reading List that has received many positive ratings on Amazon. The summer is a great time to catch up on reading and I think you'll find this to be helpful if you're considering a career in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industries. It's also been reviewed by Chemical & Engineering News as well as the American Chemical Society Careers Blog.

Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development

Here's a snippet from Amazon:

Each chapter includes valuable sections on preparing yourself for a prospective career: educational requirements and personality characteristics needed; recommendations of books, magazines, and Web site resources; and issues to consider regarding salary and compensation. The book also includes interviewing and job searching tips, as well as suggestions on writing a resume specifically for industry.

The author (Toby Freedman, PhD) was trained as a scientist and transitioned into business as a writer, recruiter, and entrepreneur. She now runs a life-science recruiting firm, Synapsis Search. Toby received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and at the University of Texas at Austin.