Fellowships and Training

Clinical Pharmacology Training at the Indiana University School of Medicine involves a rigorous training in clinical research provided by no other specialty, that is designed to prepare fellows for positions as independent investigators in academia, industry and regulatory agencies. The training program is one of a few funded by the National Institutes of Health, certified by the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology, and is the recipient of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Pharmacology grant from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Foundation.

Training in Clinical Pharmacology at the Indiana University School of Medicine involves a series of didactic classes designed to provide basic skills in clinical trial design, pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics, and ethical issues in clinical research. These classes take place within a rich research environment that involves the study of drugs in humans at many levels. Fellows have a wide spectrum of research opportunities that are focused around work in an outstanding General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the Indiana University School of Medicine and with a vigorous group of well-funded faculty. Areas of particular research strength include the study of drug interactions based on human drug metabolism and its influence on pharmacologic effect, and the influence of pharmacogenetics and pharmacokinetics on inter-individual response to drug therapy for breast cancer, HIV, cardiovascular and psychiatric disease.

The presence of strong groups of investigators in health services research in the Regenstrief Institute means that many of our studies can be carried all the way to real pharmacoeconomic and health care outcomes. Research experience in this area can include the use of large clinical databases to perform epidemiologic studies and the design and conduct of interventional trials in large populations of patients to address issues of cost effectiveness as applied to drugs.

The Indiana University School of Medicine has a strong Center for Bioethics that allows fellows the opportunity to experience excellent training in the ethical issues related to clinical research, and to understand their research in the context of national policy that affects research in clinical therapeutics.

Fellowship salaries are determined by the NIH Post-doctoral training scale. Trainees who qualify for the NIH-funded fellowship i.e. are US citizens or permanent residents, will be eligible for $35,000 of loan reimbursement per year for two years via the NIH Clinical Research Loan Reimbursement program.