MSCI Program of Study
This Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation ( MSCI) Program is a multidisciplinary curriculum designed to provide: (1) a broad set of understandings and capabilities to understand and effectively communicate and collaborate with clinical investigators from a broad range of disciplines and (2) a disciplinary depth to each scholar’s area of concentration learning. The curriculum emphasized health care disparities affecting minority and underserved populations to resonate with the mission of the College. The first year will be intensive for this instruction with additional instruction also offered during the second year.
The curriculum allows for scholars to concentrate their electives to accommodate Patient Oriented Research (referred to as Track 1) or Health Services/Epidemiology Research ( referred to as Track 2) based on their selection of appropriate elective courses.
Year |
Timeline |
Research Goals |
Year 1 |
July – September |
Identify mentoring committee, literature review, research hypothesis, resources such as patient population and/or databases. |
October – December |
Methodology and statistical analysis development. |
January |
Completion of proposal; approval by mentoring committee; IRB submission. |
February – June |
Project implementation and data collection. |
Year 2 |
July – December |
Project implementation and data collection/cleaning. |
January – March |
Data analysis. |
April – June |
Manuscript and grant preparation |
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum (27 credits) teaches the fundamentals of clinical research including biostatistics (introductory), epidemiology (introductory), molecular medicine and grant writing. Additional core classes designed for this program address health disparities and related issues. This program is in partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the site where the courses are given also is noted below. More detail can be found at Core Courses for the MSCI ( david, this should link!)
The Table below provides a summary of the required courses for the MSCI:
Core Course Title |
Credits |
Faculty Directors |
SITE |
Research Project |
4 |
(Director & Co-Directors) |
MMC |
Clinical Trials |
3 |
Steven Wolff, MD |
MMC |
Research Ethics |
2 |
Carol Freund, PhD |
MMC |
Minority Communities, Minority Health and Health Disparities |
2 |
Marino Bruce, PhD |
MMC |
Epidemiology I |
4 |
Marie Griffin, MD, MPH |
VUMC |
Biostatistics I |
4 |
Aramandla Ramesh, PhD (MMC) & Daniel Byrne, MS (VUMC) |
MMC/ VUMC |
Molecular Medicine |
3 |
John J. Murray, MD, PhD |
MMC |
Writing/Scientific Communication |
1 |
Peter Dolce, PhD and Lee Limbird, PhD |
MMC |
Grant Writing |
1 |
Hubert K Rucker, PhD |
MMC |
Health Behavioral Methods |
3 |
Tom Elasy, MD, MPH |
VUMC |
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Education 
Research
Patient Care
Links
School of Graduate Studies and Research