Patient-Oriented Clinical Research

In the spring of 1995, the National Institutes of Health, convened a panel to review the status of clinical research in the United States. The panel defined patient-oriented clinical research as research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator directly interacts with people as the subjects of research. This includes studies on:

Mechanisms of human disease
Therapeutic interventions
Clinical trials
Development of new technologies

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute faculty members have ongoing research projects in each of these areas.

Training Opportunities

This program provides research experiences for medical students, medical school graduates, and post-residency physicians. Training experiences are tailored to the individual.

Specialized Training and Training Resources

The EPH 604 Clinical Trials course teaches planning, design, analysis and data management for clinical therapeutic and prophylactic trials, illustrated by case examples.

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s Biostatistics Center has a strong track-record of data management and coordinating center activities for NEI national clinical trials as well as for local clinical and patient-oriented studies. The center recently became funded by our NEI P30 grant, extending the collaborative expertise of the staff to all eye and vision researchers at the University of Miami. This group is instrumental in advising and training junior investigators and trainees in the theory and methodology of research design and data management.

The University of Miami, School of Medicine offers a new Clinical Scientist Training Program (CSTP) designed for scientists and physicians engaged in biomedical research. This certificate program provides participants with skills necessary to design and conduct clinical or applied basic research. Funded by a K30 Clinical Research Curriculum Award from the National Institutes of Health, the CSTP consists of formal coursework, a seminar series, and a mentored research project. Our clinical research post-docs are encouraged to apply to the CSTP program.