NUCATS Online
Taking education and training beyond the Northwestern campus
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Busy community physicians and clinical researchers aren’t always able to travel to Northwestern’s downtown Chicago campus to participate in professional development classes. When a survey of principal investigators, coordinators, and other clinical research staff showed that one third of the respondents were interested in online education and had the technology required to participate, NUCATS Online was launched.
This virtual classroom sponsored by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has been well received. In the program’s first nine months, more than 220 medical professionals have participated in the online courses with positive results. Participants often comment that their expectations were exceeded, and they valued the many opportunities to ask questions and share in group discussions.
NUCATS Online began in February 2008 and offers clinical research professional training and continuing medical education. Students have the capability to search courses, register, take evaluations and tests, and print their own certificates all from within the NUCATS Online system. The system also features a discussion board to enable students to ask questions and receive support from Northwestern University resources, other clinical and translational science award (CTSA) recipients, and beyond.
“NUCATS Online will help us reach out to physicians and other research staff in the community, other CTSAs, and the general clinical research community with clinical and translational science education programs,” says Lewis J. Smith, MD, codirector of the Center for Education and Career Development.
For more information on NUCATS Online visit www.nucats.northwestern.edu or contact the Center for Education and Career Development at 312-503-7952.