National Institutes of Health Career Development K Awards: Why to Apply and How to Succeed (AACEM and Research Committee Sponsored)

The training and development of clinician-investigators in emergency medicine is essential for advancing scientific evidence and improving health outcomes. Despite making up 4% of U.S. physicians, emergency medicine remains underrepresented in research, receiving less than 1% of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Mentored career development grants, or "K" awards from the NIH and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), provide valuable support for early-career clinician-investigators, helping them secure long-term NIH funding. This session will feature a panel of current and former K awardees, discussing the importance of these awards, best practices, and common challenges. Junior faculty, fellows, and residents interested in research careers will benefit from insights and interactive discussions on applying for K awards.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:
  • Describe the rationale and process of applying for a mentored career development “K” award
  • Recognize characteristics of applicants and proposals associated with increased likelihood of funding success
  • Identify common barriers to funding success and strategies for overcoming these barriers

Presenters:

  • Ryan A. Coute, DO
  • Austin S. Kilaru, MD, MSHP
  • Lauren M. Westafer, DO, MPH, MS
  • Courtney W. Mangus, MD, MS (she/her/hers)
  • Christian D. Pulcini, MD, MEd, MPH
  • Julian T. Hertz, MD, MSc
Authors

  • Ryan A. Coute, DO

    Resident Physician

    University of Alabama at Birmingham

    Dr. Ryan Coute is an Emergency Medicine Resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His primary interest is resuscitation science research with a focus on cardiac arrest treatment and outcome disparities, burden of disease estimation, and healthcare policy. His research training includes the prestigious Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Fellowship, completed under the direction of Robert W. Neumar MD PhD at the University of Michigan. Dr. Coute has published more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including seven as primary author in high impact journals such as Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Resuscitation, Journal of the American Heart Association, and the American Heart Journal. His research has received multiple high-profile awards including two American Heart Association (AHA) Young Investigator Awards, an AHA Best Abstract Award for Resuscitation Science, and the 2020 Resident Academic Achievement Award from the Council of Residency Directors of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Coute is the recipient of two resident research grants funded by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Medicine Foundation, and his long-term goal is to become an independent NIH-funded academic clinical scientist.

  • Austin S. Kilaru, MD, MSHP

    Penn Medicine-Department of Emergency Medicine

    Austin Kilaru, MD, MSHP is an emergency physician and health services researcher. His work focuses on innovation in delivery and financing of emergency care, as well as transitions from the emergency department to outpatient services. He serves as Deputy Director of the Parity Center, which studies payment reform and health equity, and is the Physician Lead for Acute Care Initiatives at the Penn Medicine Center for Healthcare Transformation and Innovation. His work has been featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs, and Annals of Emergency Medicine.

    Dr. Kilaru attended Yale University, where he studied English. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in emergency medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, where he served as chief resident. He completed the National Clinical Scholars Program at Penn and received a Master’s degree in Health Policy Research.

  • Lauren M. Westafer, DO, MPH, MS

    Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine

    University of Massachusetts Medical School - Baystate

    Dr. Westafer, DO, MPH, MS (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School - Baystate and Director of the Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship. Lauren is an implementation science researcher and FOAMed enthusiast. She is author of the blog, The Short Coat, and cofounder of the emergency medicine podcast, FOAMcast. Dr. Westafer lectures internationally on social media in medical education, critical appraisal and journal club design, pulmonary embolism, and advancing the quality of healthcare for LGBTQI+ patients. In addition, she serves as the Social Media Editor and a research methodology editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine and an Associate Editor for the NEJM Journal Watch Emergency Medicine.

  • Courtney W. Mangus, MD, MS

    University of Michigan

    Dr. Courtney Mangus is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. She joined the faculty in 2019 after completing both her pediatric residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Her academic interests include research related to diagnostic quality and safety, community pediatric emergency care, and patient communication including shared decision-making. She received a K08 Award through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for her proposal entitled "Development and Testing of an Intervention to Facilitate Shared Decision-Making in Pediatric Patients with Abdominal Pain Presenting to the Community Emergency Department Setting."

  • Christian D. Pulcini, MD, MEd, MPH

    Pediatric Emergency Physician

    University of Vermont Medical Center

    Dr. Pulcini is a pediatric emergency physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center and UVM Children's Hospital, as well as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Pediatrics at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. He attended Tufts University School of Medicine followed by pediatrics residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. He then completed pediatric EM fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He holds an M.Ed. in secondary education from Loyola Marymount University (former Teach for America corps member) and an M.P.H. in maternal and child health from Boston University school of Public Health.
  • Julian Hertz, MD

    Julian T. Hertz, MD, MSc

    Duke University

    Julian Hertz, MD, MSc, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Global Health. He completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University, medical school at Duke University, residency training in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and his fellowship in Global Health at Duke.

    Dr. Hertz's primary interests include global health, implementation science, and undergraduate and graduate medical education. Dr. Hertz's research focuses on using implementation science methods to improve cardiovascular care both locally and globally. His current projects involve developing interventions to improve acute myocardial infarction care in Tanzania, to improve management of hypertension among Tanzanians with HIV, and to improve post-hospital care among patients with multimorbidity in East Africa.

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