Approaches for longitudinally tracking graduates of NCI-funded short-term cancer research training programs

Short-term cancer research programs for health professions students typically state goals of encouraging and fostering interest in pursuing cancer research-based careers. Evaluating career choices and professional achievements of these trainees has been problematic. Well-designed program evaluation is a key element in determining successful training experiences, and program-specific outcome measures are typically used to assess the effectiveness of each short-term cancer research experience. We describe evaluation approaches for longitudinal tracking of participants of our National Cancer Institute-sponsored Cancer Research Experiences for Students program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, emphasizing those approaches that demonstrated greatest effectiveness. We also evaluate the various methods we used in terms of cost, efficiency, and effectiveness. Recommendations are provided to assist comparable training programs facing the challenges of longitudinal tracking and program evaluation.