Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., F.N.P., R.N., and Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., began their research careers as KL2 scholars in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Today they are on solid footing as federally funded researchers.

Bryant-Moore, an associate professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, is the principal investigator of a $110,000 Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award. The funding complements her $1 million 2014 Health Resources and Services Administration grant supporting her effort to bring together Arkansas faith leaders, educators, researchers and health care providers on June 17 for the second annual Community-Campus Partnership Conference to Address Health Disparities.

“The TRI KL2 scholars program launched my research engagement with the faith community which inspired the theme of this year’s conference,” Bryant said. She noted the assistance of Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., and Camille Hart, M.P.H., from TRI’s Community Engagement program. Her collaborators also include Haynes and KL2 alum Brooke Montgomery, Ph.D.

“I am truly grateful for TRI’s support,” she said.

Haynes, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health, was recently awarded $2.1 million for a faith-based mental health intervention in the Delta. Haynes is co-principal investigator with Karen Yeary, Ph.D. Bryant-Moore is a co-investigator, and two other KL2 alums – Dennis Kuo, M.D., M.P.H., and Elvin Price, Pharm.D., Ph.D., are on the project’s steering committee. The five-year NIH grant will allow the team to test the intervention’s effectiveness as well as strategies for sustaining the intervention.

Haynes, a clinical psychologist, said the intervention is led by lay people, helping improve mental well-being through preventive approaches. Anyone experiencing depression or other mental illness will be guided to a mental health professional.

In addition to two years of KL2 support, Haynes said she was aided by TRI’s research forums.

“This intervention can improve the lives of many underserved people, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of TRI,” Haynes said.

There are some exciting developments on UAMS’ community engagement front, and we focus on those in the May TRIbune. Our cover story is about TRI’s efforts leading up to UAMS’ first Community Scientist Academy; we’ve held two research information sessions that were well attended by the public, and we are planning more sessions this summer. We also highlight Sarah Facen, a member of TRI’s Community Advisory Board, with our TRI & Me feature. The Academy is the brainchild of Facen, who is a longtime community advocate with deep ties to her South End neighborhood in Little Rock. We also feature two recent successes of our KL2 alums, Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., F.N.P., R.N., and Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., as well as ARresearch.org and your TRI-supported publications.    

 

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On a recent evening, three UAMS researchers went table to table, taking 10 minutes each to explain their work to small groups of people.

Their audience was rapt. The 23 attendees with diverse backgrounds had come to learn something about research at UAMS, including how non-scientists can play a role. Tamiko Johnson, of Benton, recalled afterward her fascination with the heart research conducted by Jean McSweeney, Ph.D.

“To learn that we are trying to do more for women with heart disease and that our symptoms are different than men is new to me,” Johnson said of McSweeney’s groundbreaking findings that identified unique heart attack symptoms in women. “I think it’s good to put that information out there so we as women know what to look for.”

Jeff Jenkins, a real estate agent from Sherwood, also enjoyed learning about the different types of research from McSweeney (community-based/survey), Laura Hutchins, M.D. (cancer/clinical) and Joseph Su, Ph.D. (community-based/survey).

“I liked the opportunity of learning directly from the doctors who spoke during the roundtable sessions,” Jenkins said.

The TRI-sponsored event was the first of multiple sessions being planned this spring and summer, including one held May 5, said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., who leads TRI’s community engagement program. In addition to informing the public about research, the sessions will help get the word out about UAMS’ first Community Scientist Academy being piloted this fall. The Academy will be a multi-week program for participants to develop a knowledge base and help engage the public in UAMS’ many research endeavors.

“We’re looking for people who want to learn even more about our research beyond these information sessions,” Stewart said. “The Academy will create a cadre of community members who can influence research by serving on steering committees, mentoring committees, review committees, research projects, and in other leadership capacities.”

Johnson and Jenkins said they are both interested in building on what they learned in April through the Community Scientist Academy.

“I work at Pulaski Technical College so I would like to learn anything that might help our students, my coworkers and the community as a whole,” said Johnson, a receptionist who has also worked as a medical assistant.

“The information session really opened my eyes to the importance of community involvement in research,” Jenkins said. “I think if more people could attend sessions like this one, UAMS would increase participation in not only the Community Scientist Academy, but also help provide candidates for future UAMS research projects.”

The Translational Research Institute (TRI), the Center for Health Literacy, and the IRB have collaborated to develop Plain-Language Consent Templates on a 5th to 6th grade reading level to improve participants’ comprehension of research procedures. 

Consent forms often have complex sentence structure and use vocabulary that make it difficult for the average adult to understand. Using a Plain-Language Consent can improve a participant’s ability to understand study procedures they are consenting for without compromising the content of the consent.

You can find these Plain-Language Consent Templates here.

This week KARK 4 aired an interview about UAMS/TRI’s ARresearch.org. Anna Huff (photo, left), discussed her participation in research and the benefits of her experience. Both Huff and Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., explained how joining the ARresearch.org registry of research volunteers benefits all Arkansans and noted the need for diversity in research participation. By joining the registry, people may be contacted by UAMS about research that matches their health interest areas.

2016-05-10 – KARK 12PM – UAMS Research from UAMS Health on Vimeo.

Arkansans are now able to volunteer for research studies through a new website developed by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Translational Research Institute.

Called ARresearch.org, the website announced today gives Arkansans a place to sign up if they want to be contacted about UAMS studies that are enrolling participants.

There are more than 1,200 active studies by UAMS researchers. The studies range from clinical trials to health surveys and tests of health interventions. UAMS research leaders hope that ARresearch.org can serve Arkansans as well as help meet the needs of researchers.

“Every day, Arkansans are stepping up to participate in research that will lead to better health for their communities, their families and themselves,” said Laura James, M.D., director of the Translational Research Institute. “Even so, medical research is in crisis across the U.S. It moves too slowly and is too costly and many studies do not meet their enrollment goals.”

For example, only 3-5 percent of adult cancer patients participate in federally funded clinical trials. James said the research community recognizes that it must approach medical research differently to solve the complex health challenges of today. Providing the public with greater access to research and making the enrollment process easier will help meet those challenges.

“A critical component of medical research in the future will be our sustained partnership with patients and communities,” she said. “ARresearch.org is one of many new approaches we will be taking. We involved the community in the planning of this research website and we are featuring patients and communities in our communications about research. Research done in Arkansas needs to reflect the needs, voices and experiences of Arkansans.”

ARresearch.org was established with input from four UAMS community and patient advisory boards. She hopes that over time the site will attract a large, diverse group of Arkansans who can help UAMS speed the pace of research and even improve the quality of its findings.

“Our goal was to create a website that makes it easy for anyone to become a research volunteer as well as offer a place to learn more about the kinds of research UAMS conducts,” said Jean McSweeney, Ph.D., who led the Translational Research Institute team that created the site. “We hope visitors will find the site to be inviting and written in a way that’s understandable to non-scientists.”

The site includes video testimonials from a cancer survivor who is taking a new, life-saving drug, and two pastors who have partnered with UAMS researchers to address health needs in their rural, predominately African-American communities. More videos will be added in the coming months.

“A major benefit for patients who come to academic medical centers is the opportunity to participate in research that leads to better health, such as clinical trials that offer new treatments,” McSweeney said. “We hope that ARresearch.org serves as a forum for the public to learn about opportunities to participate in all types of research that addresses diseases and conditions common in our state.”

The website’s registry will match volunteers to studies based on the areas of interest they check on the form, such as heart disease, mental health and cancer.

By filling out the registry form, also available in Spanish, potential volunteers only give UAMS permission to contact them about studies that match their interest areas and are enrolling participants; there is no obligation to participate in any study and they can withdraw from the registry at any time.

ARresearch.org includes links to ResearchMatch.com, a national registry of volunteers, as well as to the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. There’s also a link to a mobile texting service sponsored by the Translational Research Institute that alerts people via text message about UAMS studies that are in need of volunteers.

The Translational Research Institute represents UAMS as part of a national consortium of Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) research institutions supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Increasing public participation in research is a national priority.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,021 students, 789 medical residents and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS regional centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com.

TRI Embraces ‘Lean’ Concepts to Improve Efficiency

At UAMS, translational research starts with TRI. Inherent in the term translational is TRI’s duty to provide researchers efficient access to an array of research services.

Two years ago, TRI introduced TRIservices@uams.edu, an email address for researchers to send requests for UAMS’ research services. This services portal system was streamlined in 2015 with the addition of a Request Services form, available on TRI’s website, TRI.uams.edu. The services portal was further streamlined just this month with a new form and increased automation.

Sparking the ideas for these new processes was TRI’s participation in trainings offered by the UAMS Performance Improvement Department. A condensed version of the Introduction to Lean training was provided to the TRI Leadership Council and program managers on Feb. 29. The program teaches methods for eliminating waste and promoting efficiency by identifying bottlenecks in processes, removing non-value added steps and adjusting processes to improve flow of services.

“The TRI services portal is a great example of how TRI is applying Lean on behalf of researchers,” said Beatrice Boateng, Ph.D., who leads TRI’s Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement program.

Prior to the services portal update this month, all requests went to Amy Jo Jenkins, a TRI project leader, who manually entered the requests into a database and routed it to the appropriate person to perform the service requested.

TRI utilized Lean principles to review the research services request processes and eliminated waste to improve the response time. “Now it is all automated,” Boateng said. “When a request comes in, it will automatically route to the person or service area.  It frees up Amy Jo to focus on other issues.”

The training was familiar but still helpful to Department of Biomedical Informatics Chair Fred Prior, Ph.D., who brings both industry and academic backgrounds to his role.  He envisions applying the principles of Lean to improve response times for research queries against UAMS’ research information repositories.

“I would like to make that happen as an example of how to apply it in research,” he said.

The Lean training also including aspects of change management. Laura Hutchins, M.D., who oversees TRI’s Clinical Trial Innovation Unit and serves as the liaison for the CTSA consortium’s clinical trial initiatives, referenced a key tenet of Lean – the value of teamwork and inclusiveness.

“Teamwork is important. Everyone’s input is valuable,” Hutchins said. “Small changes may result in large improvements in outcome.”

Boateng noted that Introduction to Lean trainings typically last a week, while the Leadership Council’s training was condensed and tailored for that group.

“I think the introduction we received was just enough to get us (TRI)  thinking about what to change to make us more efficient,” she said.