Science of Clinical Investigation Training Program

The Science of Clinical Investigation Training Program (SOCI) is designed to enhance clinical scientists' theoretical and practical skills in the design, implementation, and interpretation of data from clinical investigations.

The program will train clinicians and support scientists in five core areas of clinical investigation.  Courses are offered on-site and online.  This achievement award is for non-credit only.*

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate strengths and weaknesses in study design
• Read, understand and critically discuss quantitative methods used in the scientific literature on clinical investigation
• Understand and evaluate ethical issues and regulatory requirements central to clinical research
• Acquire basic concepts of relational database design for clinical and basic research, including development of data collection forms, design of a relational database, data quality control, and importing and exporting collected data across different platforms
• Analyze experimental and observational designs, with an understanding of alternative approaches to addressing confounding in controlled observational studies, methods for evaluating the effectiveness of patient-level interventions, and methods for evaluating the effectiveness of providers and provider-level interventions

The program is intended for:

• Scientists, clinicians, or support personnel fully engaged in clinical investigation
• Regulatory personnel involved in IRBs, DSMBs, and oversight of human subjects research
• Post-doctoral trainees in the clinical disciplines who would like an overview of the requirements of high-quality clinical investigation

Students matriculated in a university degree program are not eligible for the training program.

*This training program is part of the Educational Offerings for Clinical Investigation under the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Additional information can be found here.