Purdue University
Veterinary Medical
Clinical Investigator Program Addresses
Postgraduate Training Needs for the Future
/-^s a part of its commitment to lead
veterinary medicine into the 21st
century, the School has launched a new
and innovative post-DVM Clinical Investigator Program designed to produce veterinarians possessing both competency in a clinical specialty (e.g., internal medicine or oncology) and excellent
research skills (to the PhD level). Graduates of this program will be qualified to
function as successful academic clinicians as well as biomedical scientists in
government and industry. "As more and
more clinical specialists enter private
specialty practices," says Dr. Ralph Richardson, head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, "the role of the
academic clinician will increasingly be
not only secondary and tertiary referral
service but also clinical and basic research. The Clinical Investigator Program will produce clinicians who are
well prepared to assume these expanding
responsibilities."
Trainees complete residencies in the
Veterinary Teaching Hospital, graduate
coursework through Purdue's Graduate
School, and their graduate research in a
basic science laboratory. The program is
conceived as a 5-6 year training program
with year 1 devoted primarily to residency experience; year 2 to residency
training, the initiation of graduate course-
work and identification of a thesis problem; year 3 to graduate coursework, proposal preparation, and to a lesser degree.
residency; and years 4 through 5 or 6 to
laboratory research, thesis preparation,
and defense of thesis.
A unique option in the Clinical Investigator Program is the Cooperative
Graduate Training Program. Trainees
in this option will complete their residen-
ries (e.g., the Lovelace Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, and the USDA-ARS Exotic
Animal Research Center, Plum Island. New
York) as well as private industry (e.g.,
Merrel Dow Research Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana).
Dr. Kevin Hahn. oncology resident and Ph. D. candidate in cytogenetics, evaluates his lymphocyte
cultures.
cies and coursework in the SVM. but
their PhD research will be done in absentia at excellent cooperating nondegree
granting institutions across the nation.
Cooperating institutions presently include
research institutes and national laborato-
Current clinical investigator trainees
include Drs. Kevin Hahn and Susan Jones
in oncology; Dr. Wayne Carter in small
animal internal medicine; and Dr. Karen
Cornell in small animal surgery.
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