The process began in fall 2015 with an e-mail sent by the director of graduate medical education (GME) notifying University Hospitals Regional Hospitals (UHRH) departments of medical education and their respective community-based residency programs to participate in a faculty development seminar. A central venue was chosen and contained all the necessary equipment to make this process flow smoothly, including adequate workspace, wireless internet, a projector, and a white screen. Scholarly skills were taught by means of preparation and submission of a research protocol submitted to the institutional review board (IRB) along with grant proposals. All participants were required to complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative before IRB submission.
Each of the seven 2-hour sessions was performed after work hours to accommodate multiple specialties. Participating specialties included allergy and immunology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic surgery, podiatry, sports medicine, and traditional internship programs, with each specialty representing an individual group. The participants included the directors of medical education, program directors, faculty members, and residents.
The first 6 sessions were held in a multi-specialty group setting, and the last session was held privately with individual groups. The Scholar 7 core mentors, who designed the program, led the workshops. Perceived barriers to engaging in research were accessed in an open forum at the beginning of session 1. Sessions 2 through 6 were held about 4 weeks apart and conducted in a similar format, in which each group presented their progress to the rest of the participants for feedback. Session 7 was held 4 to 8 weeks after session 6. Scholarly work, IRB submissions, IRB approval/waivers, and grants awarded to participants during the postgraduate year 2015-2016 were compared with classes since 2007-2008 within the same hospitals system.