Program Description:

The objective of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program at Yale University is to prepare a select group of physicians to be leaders in improving the nation’s health and health care. Scholars are taught to generate knowledge and insights and translate research into action at the local, state and national levels. The Yale program enables Scholars to gain competence in clinical and health services research methods, biostatistics, health policy and management, community-based research, and leadership.

Through curricular programs that are tailored to their needs, Scholars learn to work effectively across disciplines; think creatively and rigorously about health care issues; lead organizational change; participate in policy development; collaborate in projects to improve community health; and, ultimately, to generate ideas and make scholarly contributions that will improve health and health care. Long-standing relationships with community organizations in the New Haven area, fostered by Yale faculty and Clinical Scholars alumni, afford current Scholars ample opportunities to participate in community-based projects. They will also meet with national leaders involved in health care delivery, including operations, policy-making, advocacy, government and research. Yale University offers rich and varied resources that foster the creation of a unique experience for each Scholar, including close linkages with faculty and programs at the School of Medicine and the Schools of Public Health, Nursing, Law, and Management, and the Graduate School.

Directors

Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D.

Harlan M. Krumholz MD, SM, is the Director of the Yale Program where he also teaches and provides extensive mentoring to Scholars. Dr. Krumholz is the Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr. Krumholz received his MD from Harvard Medical School and an SM in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He did his training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and in cardiology at Beth Israel in Boston. He serves as Director of the Yale-New Haven Health Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE).

Dr. Krumholz is a member of many national committees focused on quality of care issues. He chairs the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Joint Committee on Performance Measures for the Care of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction, and was a member of the ACC/AHA Writing Committee for Guidelines for Patients with ST-Segment Elevation AMI. He is former chair of the AHA/ACC Annual Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke. Dr. Krumholz is a board member of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology and is on the Executive Council of the Heart Failure Society of America. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.


Georgina Lucas, MSW

Georgina Lucas, MSW is Deputy Director of the Program and Director for the Program's Community Research Initiatives. She brings a strong track record of leadership in the academic, nonprofit, public, and private sectors. She was the founding director of the Center for Innovative Practice at Smith College Graduate School for Social Work where she worked with faculty, doctoral students, and local, state, and national organizations in implementing applied research and training programs to improve mental health services to underserved populations.

Ms. Lucas served as the Staff Director of the Connecticut Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Public and Private Responsibilities for Financing Long Term Care. This commission was responsible for establishing the Connecticut Partnership for Long Term Care, a collaboration between the Connecticut Department of Medicaid and the insurance industry. The Connecticut Partnership model was subsequently replicated in other states. She has also held executive positions in the private sector managing a national community-based care management program for frail elderly, managing Travelers long-term care insurance division, the Travelers national and community affairs division and their corporate philanthropic foundation.


Cary Gross, MD

Cary Gross, MD is an Associate Director of the Program and oversees the Scholars' research. As a former Johns Hopkins University RWJ Clinical Scholar, Dr. Gross focused on research policy issues including the prioritization of clinical research funding and the dissemination of research findings. In 1999, Dr. Gross joined the Yale University School of Medicine’s Section of General Internal Medicine and has been closely involved with Yale’s Clinical Scholars program since that time. Dr. Gross' recent work has focused on cancer in older persons, with an emphasis on barriers to clinical trial participation as well as the impact of comorbid conditions on patient care and outcomes. Dr. Gross also has an interest in empiric studies of methodologic and ethical considerations in clinical research, with a focus on informed consent and financial conflicts of interest.



Marjorie Rosenthal, MD, MPH

Marjorie Rosenthal, MD, MPH is an Assistant Director of the Program and Assistant Director for the Program’s Community Research Initiative. She is a former RWJ Clinical Scholar from both Yale and the University of North Carolina. She is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Rosenthal's work has focused on barriers and facilitators to improving health education and health behavior for young, vulnerable families; this has led her to study quality improvement in physicians' offices, parental literacy, maternal mental health, and childcare. Dr. Rosenthal joined the faculty in July 2005.



Marcella Nunez Smith, MD, MHS

Marcella Nunez Smith, MD, MHS is an Assistant Director of the Program, teaching elements of the qualitative curriculum and working on scholar recruitment. She is a former RWJ Clinical Scholar from Yale and is an Assistant Professor in the Section of General Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Nunez Smith conducts research on healthcare workforce diversity, cancer disparities, and the role of media on health. Dr. Nunez Smith joined the faculty in 2006.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar Street
P.O. Box 208088
New Haven, CT 06520-8025

(203) 785-4148

http://rwjcsp.yale.edu

http://info.med.yale.edu/intmed/rwjcsp

E-mail:  rwjscholars@yale.edu