Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., was smiling as she gestured toward the room packed with community engagement-themed research posters at the Sept. 25

UAMS Showcase of Medical Discoveries.

“Community-engaged research has grown a lot in the 22 years I have been here,” said Stewart, who leads the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement Program. “We would not have been able to do this 22 years ago, so it’s very exciting to me.”

In fact, there were more poster applicants than organizers had room to display.

Shuk-mei Ho, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research, approached Stewart about having the community-engaged theme for the Showcase.

“Community-based research is going to be in all of our research going forward,” Ho told attendees at the Showcase.

Involving the community as partners is already helping researchers generate exciting new hypotheses and questions to address health, she said.

“Researchers are receiving grants because they are able to understand the community in such a deep manner,” Ho said. “Community-engaged research also

ties in really well with our efforts to address rural health issues and disparities in health care using digital health technologies such as smart phones, interactive live video, wearable devices and personal computers.”

She also noted that UAMS researchers have been extremely successful in winning Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grants, established under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to advance community-based/engagement research.

Among the poster presenters, Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., FNP-BC, associate professor in the UAMS College of Public Health, has been the recipient of numerous PCORI grants. Her research has focused on developing a network of faith leaders across Arkansas to address depression and other health disparities for African Americans.

The poster she was presenting with her colleague, Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., assistant professor in the College of Public Health, speaks to their efforts to increase the number of faith-based partners by

training them to become partners and co-investigators on research.

The poster was accepted for presentation at a recent PCORI conference and was well received, Bryant-Moore said.

“We were approached by a number of people from across the United States that were interested in the program,” she said, adding that she plans to apply for a PCORI award that will allow her team to disseminate tool kits and trainings on the program beyond Arkansas.

Stewart, a professor in the College of Public Health, noted that community-engaged research is critical to addressing fear and distrust of research due to past unethical treatment of research participants, especially minorities.

She was presenting a poster that showed her team’s work leading the UAMS Community Scientist Academy, a Translational Research Institute program.

“It’s really taken off,” she said of the academy, which invites the public to learn about the process of

research at UAMS. “We’re giving them a 30,000-foot level introduction to the process, and the reason for the process. A lot of times for people in the community, research needs to be demystified, so we also give them an opportunity to meet and interact with our researchers.”

Amy Jo Jenkins, M.S., CCRP, CCRA, CCRC, TRI Executive Director, was installed as president of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) during a Sept. 27 ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.

Jenkins led the establishment of the Arkansas chapter of SOCRA and is a past chair. SOCRA  chapters offer no-cost clinical research continuing education to enhance research quality, to protect research participants, and to improve the health of the global community.

This year’s SOCRA Annual Conference welcomed about 1,200 attendees. The three-day conference offered the latest information and tools, best practices and training to help its members stay up to date and compliant in their clinical research practice. The program featured over 100 academic sessions, a peer-driven poster session, and an exhibit program.

TRI had three scientific posters accepted for presentation at the conference. The posters and their presenters are:

Beatrice Boateng, Ph.D., TRI director of evaluation and associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; “Sensitive Research Study Records: Do they Belong in the Patient Medical Record? – A Preliminary Study”

Pam Christie, B.A., CRS, TRI senior project manager, research recruitment, stakeholder engagement, “Stakeholder Engagement Makes a Difference: Improving the Site Selection Processes for Clinical Trials”

Mtonya Hunter-Lewis, MBA, CPC, CCRP, TRI associate director, regulatory support, “Utility of a Web-based Research Protocol Development Tool: One Institution’s Experience”

The UAMS Research Expo was a new experience for Yuet-Kin “Ricky” Leung, Ph.D., and one that will help get his research on solid footing as a new faculty member.

“I’ve never seen this kind of expo before, and it’s very helpful for me,” said Leung, an associate professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. “I had no clue before how many units or service groups were available to help me.”

Leung, along with about 150 other UAMS faculty and research staff, stopped by the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute to check out the 30-plus research services represented at the Sept. 10 Research Expo.

This year’s Expo marked an expansion of the Translational Research Institute (TRI) Open Houses held the past two years. TRI and the UAMS Office of Research Compliance co-sponsored the event, inviting all UAMS-wide research service providers as well as its partners, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

The Expo is a fun, relaxed way for researchers to talk directly to the research service providers all in one place. This year’s event also included ice cream, hors d’oeuvres and door prizes drawn by Stephanie Gardner, Ed.D., UAMS provost and chief strategy officer.

Gardner also welcomed attendees, noting that the Expo helps researchers find critical resources that will help them get their studies off the ground more quickly and produce high quality findings.

Nidhi Kapoor, M.D., assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Neurology, is already familiar with many of TRI’s research services, she said, but the event made her aware of additional research amenities. “Every time I go to one of these meetings, whether it’s the Research Expo or the faculty resource fair last month, I tend to learn something new. I meet more people, and I learn about new resources and more help that’s available to busy clinicians like me.”

New this time for her, Kapoor said, was TRI’s Implementation Science Scholars program, which is accepting applications through Sept. 20.  “I am considering submitting an application,” she said.

She also gleaned other valuable information, such as protocol building services with the Institutional Review Board, and how the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs can help with her with future grant applications.

Jami Jones, research program director at the Center for Childhood Obesity Prevention, was finding some promising new connections for her center’s researchers based at ACRI.

“I’ve been visiting booths looking for ways that our researchers can utilize the various services offered through UAMS,” Jones said. “I think that both ACRI and UAMS offer great support for research and it was exciting to learn about new resources and opportunities for collaboration. It was very interesting to learn about the data warehouse (Arkansas Clinical Data Repository – AR-CDR); I didn’t know about it, and I think we can utilize that.”

She also discovered exciting possibilities in her visit with the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation booth. She said researchers at ACRI are

interested in using mobile applications in their studies but app developers are lacking. The institute, she learned, is working on finding app developers. “I’m very excited about that,” Jones said.

Chenghui Li, Ph.D., an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy i, said having all the services in one place helped her clarify what each p rogram does.

“I just didn’t realize how many different services were part of the research enterprise; I knew some of them,” Li said, who is new to UAMS.

Li found assistance from TRI’s Clinical Trials Innovation Unit.

“I actually have a specific project that I needed information for, and they were very helpful,” she said. “They also provided individuals’ names for further contact. Gary D. Lewis, M.D., a new assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology, enjoyed the whole Expo experience.

“I thought it was great as a new faculty member to learn and meet all these people who I’m going to be working with, and to figure out what resources are available,” Lewis said.  “Since I am new here, I just wanted to try to make sense of all the resources that are available.”

While he is still plotting his research path, he sees promise in TRI’s ARresearch participant registry, its Community Engagement program and the resources available at the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation.

Community-based organizations are invited to apply for a new research leadership training program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that includes seed funding for community projects.

Applications are due by Oct. 14, 2019, for the Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL) Program, supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

Up to six community-based organizations will be selected, with two or three leaders or emerging leaders per organization invited to participate. Up to $2,500 in seed funding will be provided to each organization to tackle a health-related community project.

The one-year program will begin Jan. 15, 2020, with a six-week intensive training offered by the Translational Research Institute in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Health.

“UAMS research can play a bigger role in improving health, especially if we can engage communities most burdened by poor health in influencing our research,” said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., director of the research institute’s Community Engagement Program. “We will use this new program to build capacity of community leaders and empower them with the knowledge to partner in research addressing our state’s health disparities.”

Experts in community-based research, clinical and public health practice and community engagement will provide interactive learning sessions during the six-week intensive training. Each team will have a UAMS researcher assigned to mentor them throughout the year and the opportunity for one-on-one consultations with a community mentor. The program is free and all trainings will be held in Little Rock.

Interested community-based organizations may contact

Funding for the project is supported by the Translational Research Institute, Clinical and Translational Science Award UL1 TR003107, through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, visit the CPEARL Program Page.

Applications may be submitted to triceteam@uams.edu.

Questions? Contact RBHale@uams.edu.

Five UAMS faculty have received pilot awards in research targeting the health challenges of rural and underrepresented populations.

The one-year awards of up to $50,000 each were made possible through the UAMS Office of Vice Chancellor for Research and are being administered by the TRI.

Below are the awardees and their research project titles:

Sara Landes, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Psychiatry/Health Services Research, “Evaluating Rural Community Pharmacists’ Perceptions of Integrating Mental Health Services to Reach Underserved Populations”

Pearl McElfish Ph.D., MBA, Assistant Professor, Office of Community Health and Research, “DSMES+SHES to reduce health disparities among rural, minority participants.”

Robert Pesek, M.D., Associate Professor ,Pediatrics, Allergy/Immunology; “Comparison between Telemedicine and In-Home Asthma Assessments for Identification and Reduction of Asthma Triggers”

Theresa Prewitt , Dr.P.H.,  Associate Professor, COPH, Health Policy and Management, “Examining National Diabetes Prevention Program Implementation in a Rural Federally Qualified Health Center Network”

Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, Ed.D., Professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine / Research and Evaluation Division, “Adverse Childhood Experiences of Rural and Underserved Arkansans: Identification of Risk and Links to Outcomes”

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is seeking applications for UAMS’ first Implementation Science Scholars Program, with awards available for up to five UAMS clinical faculty.

Read the Request for Applications.

Supported by TRI and its Clinical and Translational Science Award, the program will fund faculty interested in learning more about how to implement new practice guidelines and/or other implementation or de-implementation approaches that will improve medical care.

Geoffrey Curran, Ph.D., director of the UAMS Center for Implementation Research, is leading the scholars program.

Using the principles of implementation science, Curran and colleagues will guide faculty through 10 didactic sessions per year and provide oversight and mentoring for experiential implementation science projects. The two-year program will provide 20% salary support and prepare faculty to publish the results of their implementation science projects. Scholars who want to pursue research grants to expand on their accomplishments would receive assistance from the UAMS Center for Implementation Research.

The program is open to all UAMS faculty, including at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Those interested are encouraged to attend Thursday’s information session at ACH. An information session was held Monday on the UAMS campus.

Contact: Cindy Mosley, CLMosley@uams.edu