The UH College of Technology, in conjunction with the Methodist Hospital has recently announced that it will offer a two year master’s degree program in clinical research that will be available for Fall 2007.
"We expect that students from pharmacy, optometry, biology and biochemistry as well as nurses from the Methodist Hospital will be in the program starting this Fall 2007 semester with the Fundamentals of Clinical Trials course, which I will be teaching," UH Director of the Personalized Medicine Program and Targeted Therapeutics and associate professor Amalia M. Issa said.
Issa also said that the most likely candidates to enroll are graduate students with a background in biological sciences, psychology, nursing and pharmacy who are expected to pursue a career in clinical research. Students graduating from other academic backgrounds will be considered for the program if given permission by the Director of Graduate Studies.
"Students who do not have any background in life sciences may be asked to take an undergraduate level course in physiology or human biology prior to or concurring with enrolling in the master’s or certificate program," Issa said.
Prospective students are expected to pursue either a master of science degree or a certificate of advanced study in clinical research. Classes taken to complete the program deal with data management, biostatistical methods, project management, outcomes research as well as the ethical and regulatory aspects of conducting clinical trials.
Although the program is housed by the College of Technology, instructors from other colleges will teach courses, making it an interdisciplinary program at UH. Several UH colleges, in particular the life sciences of optometry, pharmacy, psychology (from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences), natural sciences and mathematics are participating along with member of the Texas Medical Center.
"Although this program is currently housed within the College of Technology, our faculty come from other colleges as well as from the Texas Medical Center," Issa said.
Students involved in the new program will be allowed flexibility in the scheduling of the new courses offered.
"All our courses are designed to accommodate working professionals and generally meet in the late afternoons and evenings," Issa said.
The University began planning for the program a few years ago in partnership with the Methodist Hospital with Issa as the chair of the steering committee.
"We officially started planning and developing this program in September 2005," Issa said.
According to the partnership between Methodist Hospital and UH, the agreement will last for 30 years, and so far has led to other joint collaborative efforts between the two institutions, such as the Institute for Biomedical Imaging Sciences, which was founded last month to advance research that could help speed up medical diagnoses for patients.
