Principal Investigator: Vivian Shi, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine.

Summary: A five-year longitudinal observational study tracking outcomes of patients with chronic inflammatory skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis (eczema), alopecia, hidradenitis suppurativa, vitiligo and psoriasis.

Significance: Characterization of disease activity over time, including response to treatments and analysis of biospecimens, will inform clinical practice by identifying the occurrence and impact of comorbid medical conditions and aid the design of more targeted therapies.

TRI Services: Budget development, Medicare coverage analysis, regulatory and research nurse coordinator services.

Sponsor: TARGET PharmaSolutions

In this issue of The TRIbune newsletter, we highlight the work of two researchers who used TRI’s Team Science Voucher Program to help obtain large federal grants. Craig Porter, Ph.D., received a five-year, $2 million award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Corey Hayes, Pharm.D., Ph.D., MPH, leverage his team science voucher to earn a $1 million Veterans Affairs Career Development Award.

This issue also features Vivian Shi, M.D., in our TRI Study of the Month and the mentorship awards to implementation scientists Geoffrey Curran, Ph.D., Taren Swindle, Ph.D., and Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D. They took three of the six UAMS mentorship awards announced at Mentors Appreciation Day in January.  Read The TRIbune.

Principal Investigator: Subodh Devabhaktuni, M.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine.

Summary: A phase 3 multi-center efficacy and safety study of Etripamil Nasal Spray to treat spontaneous episodes of Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia (PSVT), an arrhythmia.

Significance: While not lethal, PSVT episodes can cause panic that sends patients to the emergency department. If approved by the FDA, Etripamil Nasal Spray could be used in the home to stabilize patients’ heart rhythms.    

TRI Services: Budget development and negotiation, Medicare coverage analysis, and regulatory management

Sponsor: Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Our latest TRIbune newsletter highlights a milestone for TRI’s Implementation Science Scholars Program. The program, led by Geoffrey Curran, Ph.D., graduated its first cohort of five scholars. All impressed the program’s external evaluator and program leaders with strong project reports, which we have summarized.  

Our Study of the Month features Subodh Devabhaktuni, M.D.Read The TRIbune.

The UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) is pleased to invite Letters of Intent (LOI) for the 2022 KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Scholar Awards.

KL2 Scholar Awards are part of the TRI Career Development Scholars Program, which provides support for early-career UAMS faculty with a professional degree (M.D., Ph.D., Pharm.D., D.N.P., Dr.PH., D.O., etc.) who are committed to an academic career in multidisciplinary clinical or translational research.

Successful applicants will begin the two-year program July 1, 2022. The KL2 program combines an innovative educational program with mentored clinical/translational science research. KL2 Scholars receive:

• Salary support/stipend of up to $95,000 (including fringe) per year. 
• Up to $25,000 of non-salary support per year, which can be used for research, tuition, travel expenses, educational materials and other costs related to the scholar’s research.

The deadline for submitting LOIs is Jan. 24, 2022, 5 p.m. (CT). 

See attached LOI Cover Page PDF. 

The KL2 program is supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program of the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. 

TRI is inviting applications from community-based organizations to participate in a six-month research leadership training program and receive up to $2,500 in seed funding to implement a real-world project.

Led by the TRI Community Engagement team, the 2022 Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL) Program will include up to six teams. Each team will also have a UAMS researcher and community mentor assigned to mentor them throughout the year.

An information session will be held Jan. 19, noon – 1 p.m.

View flyer for additional details. 

Visit the CPEARL webpage. 

Please share with your community partners and others. This is a great opportunity for community-based organizations to improve their partnership readiness. 

Contact: Rachel Hale, rbhale@uams.edu

TRI is now seeking applicants for a new Team Science Champion Award that will support early stage, cross-disciplinary collaborations.

One-year grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded to up to two cross-disciplinary teams. The funded research will involve telemedicine, digital health or other innovative technologies, and it will address rural health. Proposed projects will involve a collaboration with a rural provider, such as the UAMS Rural Research Network or similar located outside of the UAMS Little Rock campus catchment area.

TRI is particularly interested in projects that forge new collaborations across multiple disciplines that directly support its mission to develop new knowledge and novel approaches that will measurably address the complex health challenges of Arkansas’ rural and underrepresented populations. 

Team Science Champion Award information sessions will be offered on 12/16/21, 01/06/22, and 01/27/22. Please email Adam Kleinerman (akleinerman@uams.edu) or Paul Duguid (pduguid@uams.edu) if you would like to attend one of these sessions. 

Letters of Intent are due Feb. 7, 2022.  Submit your letter here.

All applications must be received no later than March 14, 2022.

Read the Request for Applications for details.

Cornelia Ann Smith’s severe chronic back pain disappeared almost as soon as the experimental spinal cord stimulator was activated in a procedure at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

“I realized the device was helping me immediately,” the Calico Rock, Ark., resident said. Then, back home, it really began to sink in.

“I was sitting on the couch, and I thought, ‘This is amazing.’”

For six years prior to the implant, she struggled to take care of her home and her husband, who has Parkinson’s disease, and she could not enjoy her many hobbies.

“It felt like a bonfire in my back, and there was nothing anyone could do about it,” she said.

When she learned that UAMS was testing the spinal cord stimulator in a clinical trial, she contacted UAMS and was referred to neurosurgeon Erika Petersen, M.D., who is leading the device study.

“We talked about what her goals should be,” said Petersen, a national leader in spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain. “She wanted to be able to garden and go fishing and play with her grandchildren.”

Smith had many questions about the surgical implant procedure.

“After speaking with Dr. Petersen and hearing why she was confident in the device and her confidence in the procedure, I was all for it — 100%,” she said.

Prior generations of spinal cord stimulation devices include a small remote control that the patient uses to adjust the level of electronic stimulation if their pain spikes.

In January 2021, Smith became the first Arkansan to benefit from the latest technology. The so-called closed-loop experimental device does not require manual adjustment of the electronic stimulation; the system monitors the patient’s pain and adjusts the stimulation as needed.

The device was developed by Saluda Medical of Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia, and is being tested in the ECAP (evoked compound action potential) study.

“I would say this is a pretty big advance,” said Petersen, a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery. “This is the difference between constantly having to maintain the device and interact with it to being able to forget it and let it be in the background. That means people are able to stop thinking about where they are with their chronic pain control and just think about what they want to do during their day.”

Petersen said other study participants have reported pain decreases of more than half and up to 100%, like Smith.

“We are seeing some great results so far, and it’s significant that their pain relief is being sustained over time,” Petersen said.

UAMS is one of 13 research sites in the United States participating in the study.

“I’ve been really excited to be in the field of neuromodulation for the past decade because we have had an explosion in these sorts of technologies starting from about 2015, with more and more innovations coming,” Petersen said. “With every innovation we have an opportunity to help more people who have chronic nerve damage related problems.”

UAMS is still recruiting participants for the study. Those interested in participating must be referred through the UAMS Pain Clinic, which assesses patients to determine if they are eligible.

The study is supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, where research nurse coordinator Lisa Richardson, RN, works closely with the study participants.

“Being a part of this research study has been a pleasant experience,” Smith said. “It’s been eye-opening. Lisa checks on me often and she gave me her phone number so I can call her any time I need to.”

In a follow-up visit to UAMS on Oct. 28, 2021, Smith reported that she remains pain free.

“It has changed my life,” she said.

Watch a video here about Smith’s experience in the clinical trial.

If you missed TRI’s annual Research Regulatory Conference – Virtual Research in a Complicated World, video recordings are now available. Below are YouTube links for each part of the agenda.

Keynote speaker Erin Rothwell, Ph.D., from the University of Utah, presented, “Promoting Informed Decision Making for Consent in Virtual Research,” to kick off the conference. https://youtu.be/0hGEd1QM-2I

Keynote speaker Chris Lindsell, Ph.D., from Vanderbilt University, “ACTIV-6, TREAT-NOW and Other Stories: Lessons Learned from Running Decentralized Platform Trials during a Pandemic.”  https://youtu.be/uOJZKHIppC8

Q&A Panel: Common Compliance Issues with Remote Research

Moderator: Edith Paal, M.S.Journ., MPH, director, UAMS Institutional Review Board

Panelists:

• Aline Andrews, Ph.D., RD, co-interim director, Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center; professor, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, UAMS
• Jamie Baldner, B.S., CCDM, research informatics director, Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, UAMS
• Hari Eswaran, Ph.D., professor and director of Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, and Institute for Digital Health and Innovation, UAMS
• Darri Scalzo, research compliance officer, Office of Research Compliance, UAMS
  https://youtu.be/sztEOYtg-W8

Chris Long, Ph.D., presented “Ethical Considerations Regarding Returning Results to Research Participants.”
https://youtu.be/PbRiPKlnrrU

Joseph Sanford, M.D., and Kevin Sexton, M.D., presented “Digital Health Resources in Remote Research.”
https://youtu.be/mrDp99bQwjQ


View many other video presentations in TRI’s Video/Knowledge Library.

In this month’s TRIbune, we highlight the exciting addition of the Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program, a TRI-supported collaboration between UAMS and Arkansas Children’s. This important and unique program is among the first nationally accredited in the U.S., and is attracting talented doctors with informatics expertise.

This issue also includes important implementation science news, an announcement of our Team Science Voucher Awardees, and our TRI Study of the Month features Sumant Inamdar, M.D.  

Read The TRIbune.