Inside Duke Medicine
2 with SOM ties named RWJ Foundation Clinical Scholars
posted July 16th, 2010Charles Scales, M.D., a resident in the Division of Urologic Surgery and graduate of the School of Medicine, is among 27 young physicians selected as a 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. Also among the 27 is Dustyn Baker, a School of Medicine graduate who is a resident in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The physicians will learn to conduct innovative research and work with communities, organizations, practitioners and policy-makers on issues important to the health of all Americans. Selected competitively from applicants enrolled in medical and surgical residencies across the United States, they will begin their prestigious two-year fellowships in July 2011.
Through the program, scholars will spend two years examining the delivery, impact and organization of health care. The new scholars plan to work on a range of issues such as mitigating disparities in care of hospitalized children, using technology to improve doctor-patient communication, improving end-of-life care, reducing hospital-based infections, reducing preterm births for at-risk women, and expanding access to primary care in underserved communities.
Clinical Scholars receive their training at one of four universities: Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, or the University of California, Los Angeles. A program partner for more than 30 years, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs will support eight of the 27 scholars through VA Medical Centers affiliated with the participating universities.