The Wayne State University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has been an internationally recognized academic center in women's health and child development for the past 50 years. In 1999 our Department was recognized by National Institutes of Health (NIH) with funding to be one of the first Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Centers in the United States, which has been continuously through 2020. 

The WRHR Career Development Research Center in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at WSU selects outstanding clinicians who desire an opportunity for training in clinical or basic science research. Research training is to be conducted under the guidance of a senior investigator, with the goal of training individuals to be competitive for extramural funding.

The intent of this program is to make a positive and lasting change in the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology by training physicians to become successful researchers who will transfer their results to benefit women. The long-term objective of the proposed training is to develop a new generation of obstetrician-gynecologists to be physician-scientists at Wayne State University and nationally who can sustain independent careers in basic, translational and/or clinical research that is related to women's reproductive health.

The research career development plan for WRHR Scholars at Wayne State University will be tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual. Each will be guaranteed at least 75% of his/her time for research and related training. Scholars will select a mentor who is an experienced and successful researcher, and who has a successful track record providing research guidance and training.

Mentors can be faculty members in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, or affiliated with women's health research. To foster multidisciplinary research that makes use of expertise from other medical specialties and disciplines, Scholars will be allowed to select their primary mentor from among qualified faculty members who are appointed elsewhere in the School of Medicine. In such circumstances, to assure that the focus of the research is germane to women's health, a co-mentor from within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will be required. The co-mentor will be selected by the Scholar in consultation with the primary mentor and the Research Director. Mentors will counsel Scholars in all aspects of their research career development. The overall objective of each individualized career development plan will be to produce an independent physician-scientist who will graduate from the program with his/her own extramural research support.