StrokeNet Fellowship

The SPIRIT Regional Coordinating Center of NIH StrokeNet seeks a 2025-2026 fellow within its four academic centers (Hartford Healthcare, Northwell Health, Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University (Rhode Island Hospital), and Yale School of Medicine) or corresponding performance sites, who will be funded $50,000 (salary and fringe inclusive) with 50% dedicated research time for one year while he or she learns methods for clinical research and completes a clinical research project. The intent of the StrokeNet training program is to enhance the education and career development of future stroke clinical researchers. Applicants must have an interest in clinical research and commit to participating fully in the StrokeNet Fellowship program.

The SPIRIT fellow will work with a StrokeNet co-investigator faculty mentor coupled with mentorship from SPIRIT’s Education Core Director, Dr. Walter Kernan (Yale), based on a training plan developed after selection. During the StrokeNet Fellowship training year (7/1/25-6/30/26), the trainee must: 1) attend (or participate asynchronously in all StrokeNet Grand Rounds, Professional Development Webinars, and Basic Science Journal Clubs; 2) participate in a Learning Community; 3) submit a research project synopsis; 4) present their research in progress at a StrokeNet meeting or webinar; 5) spend at least 50% of their time on research and research training; and 6) complete all program-related surveys during and after the program. At the end of the fellowship, fellows are expected to advance in their trajectory toward an independently funded career in research or have an interest in clinical research. For some, this will mean achieving an academic appointment and for others it will mean applying for an award to support research or career-development.

Eligible candidates include residents, fellows, post-doctoral associates, nurses, and junior faculty, within the SPIRIT institutions from any discipline (not just limited to vascular neurology). This could include neurosurgeons, epidemiologists, physical therapists, basic scientists, and any others that have a significant interest in a career in stroke research.

1. A cover letter that explains your interest in the fellowship, your qualifications for a career in research related to stroke research, and states your commitment to participating fully in the NIH StrokeNet training program.
2. A commitment letter from a proposed research mentor indicating that the mentor accepts this role, has assisted you in developing your proposal, and will commit to provide the necessary supervision over the duration of the fellowship. The letter should provide evidence of the mentor’s qualifications, including prior experience as a mentor, research accomplishments, and current research funding. The letter should detail how the mentor plans to oversee the fellow’s progress and provide assurance that he or she can spend adequate time on this activity.
3. A letter of recommendation from your current program director, fellowship director, or departmental chair. The letter must comment on your recent professional performance, qualifications for a career in research, and explanation of the program or department’s support for the applications. This letter must also indicate that you will have 50% of your time available to devote to fellowship activities. It must include a commitment from the chair to provide funds to supplement the StrokeNet award so that the candidate has a total of 50% time for research.
4. A two-page research proposal, inclusive, with: 1) Title; 2) Background; 3) Research Aims; 4) Hypothesis(es); 5) Methodology; 6) Expected Outcomes; and 7) References.
5. A curriculum vitae.

For instructions on preparing the proposal and plan, contact Ruth Arnold.

• Application due: September 20, 2024.
• Successful applicants notified: October 11, 2024
• Fellowship starts July 1, 2025.

Liqi Shu, MD, from Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, has been selected as the 2024-2025 SPIRIT NIH StrokeNet Fellow. The title of his project is "Decoding Movement after Stroke: Developing Sensitive Neurorehabilitation Outcome Measures." The one-year fellowship begins on July 1, 2024.

• Focus on evaluating patients’ cerebral autoregulation, the mechanism in which the brain maintains a constant cerebral blood flow despite changes in blood pressure, after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) to determine optimal blood pressure targets, and to access how deviating from personalized autoregulation-based blood pressure targets relates to radiographic and clinical outcomes.
  

2021-2022 Fellow: Rachel Forman, MD - Yale

• Focus on evaluating the characteristics of stroke patients who participate in home blood pressure monitoring, as well as on identifying testing barriers to help guide future interventions.

2020-2021 Fellow: Yan Hou, MD - Hartford Health

• Focus on ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in young adults aged 18-35.

2019-2020 Fellow: Jacqueline Geer, MD, Pulmonary Fellow - Yale

• Focus on determining whether OSA increases risk for ICH, severity, and race.

2018-2019 Fellow: Nils Petersen, MD, MSc - Yale

• Focus on the role of autoregulation-based therapies to optimize outcomes after stroke, especially around thrombectomy. Working on identifying patients who are vulnerable to blood pressure reductions during endovascular therapy via neuroimaging profile.

2018-2019 Fellow: Tracy Madsen, MD, ScM — Brown/Rhode Island

• Focus on using REGARDS and GCNKSS to investigate sex differences in stroke incidence and traditional risk factors, use of Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and Framingham Study to look at role of sex hormones in stroke risk in some men, and evaluation/management/outcomes of TIA in women and men.