SPH Partners with Mayo Clinic on Clinical Trials Course

Winter 2007

The tool behind the School of Public Health's latest partnership with the Mayo Clinic is television. For the first time, staffers in the division of biostatistics at the Mayo Clinic can take an SPH course in clinical trials through interactive television (ITV).

The ITV course lets Mayo students in Rochester, Minn., tune into a live broadcast for twice-weekly classes. SPH professor James Neaton, an expert in conducting large national and international clinical trials, is the instructor. The ITV technology allows both Neaton and the Mayo students to see each other and converse. The six Rochester-based students can also interact with the 70 other students in the Twin Cities campus classroom.

Faculty in the division of biostatistics partnered with Dan Sargent on the offering. Sargent, professor of biostatistics at Mayo and director of statistics at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the SPH. He also serves as an associate academic advisor for his alma mater. "This partnership gives our staff access to a world-class curriculum, with all the conveniences of distance learning," he says.

The partners are hoping this first course offering will strengthen and expand the existing research collaborations between the two organizations. The ultimate goal is to offer M.S. and Ph.D. biostatistics degree programs to Mayo Clinic employees.

"This is an exciting first step in what we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership," says John Connett, head of the SPH division of biostatistics. "Working collaboratively on research and educational programs is key to training the growing data-based health care workforce."