Fellowship & Training Programs
We are home to several pre- and post-doctoral fellowships that serve trainees from several clinical and research disciplines.
The Institute leads or participates in five fellowship programs and provides individual research training opportunities under the mentorship of our faculty outside of formal fellowship programs. While each has its own structured curriculum, mentored research, and connection to other Harvard resources, the programs all have in common the health system and population foci of the Institute.
Research fellows receive support and regular feedback on their work and strong mentorship to guide their paths toward their desired goals and career trajectories.
We offer a particularly rich environment for fellows in these programs due to our strong mentorship program, the interdisciplinary nature of the Institute, unique research opportunities, and data resources.
We are one of seven sites of Harvard Medical School's Fellowship Program in General Medicine and Primary Care. The Fellowship is one of the leading training programs in the nation and has produced numerous academic leaders in general medicine research, education, and health care. Continuously funded by Health Resources and Services Administration and other sources for over two decades, the Fellowship provides research training and experience under the direction of highly qualified mentors.
Each year the Harvard-wide Fellowship selects six to eight fellows from a national pool of applicants, one or two of whom are based at the Institute. Fellows are funded by federal grants or other funds for two years of study, and they occasionally spend a third year at the Institute. Most fellows attend classes at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Clinical Effectiveness track, which is specifically designed for physicians, and complete a master's degree. Fellows also participate in curricula in teaching and caring for the underserved, see patients part-time, and have the opportunity to teach in HMS courses directed by department faculty. However, most of their time is spent conducting clinical epidemiology, health policy, and delivery science research under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
Over the years of our participation with the Harvard General Medicine and Primary Care Fellowship, more than 20 fellows have been based in our department. The vast majority of alumni continue as primary care generalists in academic medicine, and many have major leadership positions in academics, policy development, and internal medicine.
The goal of the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research (HSR) Fellowship is to train outstanding researchers who can address critical gaps in primary care for children and fundamentally improve the capacity of the U.S. health care system to meet the needs of children and families, including socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority populations. The fellowship represents a unique and established collaboration of faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, and the Department of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
The Institute is a critical part of this program. Laura Garabedian is the Associate Program Director and Davene Wright is the Institute’s site director. All fellows, particularly those based here, have the opportunity to conduct research using our data systems and linkages with health systems.
The program recruits superb candidates, both pediatric generalists and subspecialists, from local training programs and others across the country. Training components include an MPH through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Clinical Effectiveness Program, an innovative series of seminars including fellows’ works-in-progress, faculty presentations, and sessions on skill development (e.g. job seeking and grant writing). Graduates have forged extraordinarily successful careers as leaders in pediatrics at HMS and institutions around the country. 92% of graduates from the past 10 years remain in academic positions, they contribute numerous publications to the research evidence each year and 84% of our graduates have federal or foundation funding.
This Fellowship seeks to address the gap between research evidence and policy by training clinician-researchers, medical and PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, mid-career university faculty, and policy decision-makers.
Our Division of Therapeutics Research and Infectious Disease Epidemiology (TIDE) is the home of several large, complex, multi-institutional research initiatives using real-world data and distributed analytic approaches to support major national public health activities in collaboration with federal and industry funders.
As part of the Fellowship in Pharmacoepidemiology and Real-world Evidence, trainees perform research under the guidance of Darren Toh and other faculty members and research scientists.
Trainees have the opportunity to lead and participate in a wide range of comparative effectiveness and safety research studies and public health surveillance projects, including NIH-funded and AHRQ-funded projects, FDA-funded Sentinel program, and other federally and industry-funded projects. These projects leverage multiple real-world data sources, including administrative claims databases and electronic health record databases, available in-house or through distributed data networks. Specific projects will be determined based on the Fellow’s background and interests. Additionally, they have the opportunity to participate in other activities, including grant preparation activities (e.g., writing research plans, supporting budget preparation, and submitting IRB applications) and journal review and editorial activities.
Eligible candidates will have:
- Doctoral degree, such as an MD, PhD, or ScD, or in final stage of doctoral program in pharmacoepidemiology, epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, or related field.
- Advanced knowledge of epidemiologic methods and biostatistics.
- Familiarity with commonly used RWD sources, including claims and EHR databases.
- Familiarity with statistical software and programming languages, such as SAS, R, and Python.
- Strong written and interpersonal communication skills.
- Ability to work independently, manage time effectively, and meet project deadlines.
Application Process:
Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Fellowship start dates are flexible. Applicants will be notified when an application has been reviewed.
The Thomas O. Pyle Fellowship was created by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Harvard University in honor of Thomas Pyle, who was Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Community Health Plan for many years and a leader in the Harvard and Boston communities. The Fellowship is intended to support scholarly work that contributes to the development of health care policy at any of several levels - public, organizational, or clinical. The level of funding is based on the applicant’s experience and financial needs.
The Fellowship provides one year of salary support in accordance with our Fellowship stipend scale; up to $5,000 for research-related expenses; and a professional allowance of $1,500.
Additional fellowship opportunities outside of these programs are often available. Visit our careers link for additional opportunities.
