The Child Health Research Career Development Award (CHRCDA) is a K12 Program grant award supported by the National Institutes of Health. The program has distinguished itself as an unusually successful early-career training program—as measured by funding rates of scholars—and has become an essential resource for U.S. academic pediatric departments.

Since its inception, the program has focused on training and preparing pediatric candidates with outstanding scientific potential. K12 graduates now populate many pediatric departments across the country and hold leadership positions nationally in pediatric research. The CHRCDA program at Cincinnati Children’s (currently in its 30^th year) is led by the Tina Cheng, MD (PI) and Paul Spearman, MD (Training Program Director), and Hitesh Deshmukh, MD, PhD. (Recruitment Director).

The Annual Child Health Research Centers Meeting (2020) was co-hosted by Emory University, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Cincinnati Children’s on Oct. 12 and 13th. Scholars from all 12 sites, including Meredith Schuh, MD (Assistant Professor, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension), and Anna Peters, MD (Instructor, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition) presented their findings. Please join us in congratulating these scholars for their success.

The meeting was highlighted by a keynote from Max Cooper, MD, Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, and 2019 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Awardee and presentation of a special award to Arnold (Arnie) Strauss, MD, Chairman Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati and renowned cardiologist and physician-scientist.

The CHRCDA program is accepting applications for 2020-2021. The program provides a dedicated two-year career development period that includes didactic coursework and mentored research training with 75% protected research time. A list of prior scholars and their achievements can be found here.

–Post authored by Hitesh Deshmukh, MD, PhD