Impact of Global Health Research Training on Scholarly Productivity: The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program

Abstract

In the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows (FICRS-F) Program, 536 U.S. and international doctoral and postdoctoral health profession students and trainees completed 1-year research training at research centers in low- and middle-income countries. To evaluate the Program's impact, we analyzed data gathered prospectively during the Program, from PubMed, and from a representative survey of alumni. Of 100 randomly selected respondents, 94 returned the survey. Reflecting the sources of funding, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was the focus of 47% of the projects, but research in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and dual infection/NCD-related topics increased over time. Among the first 1,617 alumni publications, output was associated positively with being an international versus U.S. trainee, a postdoctoral Fellow versus predoctoral Scholar, and accumulation of more years post-training (all P < 0.001). Fellows were first author on a higher proportion of their articles than were Scholars (P < 0.001), and U.S. trainees were more often first author than international trainees (P = 0.04). Survey respondents had submitted 117 grant applications, and 79 (67.5%) had been funded. The FICRS-F Program yielded substantial research productivity in the early post-training years. Research outputs and impact will increase over time as alumni careers mature and they gain research independence and assume leadership positions.

Figure 1.

Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows research areas by start year.

Figure 2.

Word cloud of research project titles in the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program. To be included, words must have occurred a minimum of 15 times.