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Power of Research Not Lost on Graduates of Patient Scientist Academy

Patient Scientist Academy graduates and Translational Research Institute academy leaders, (back, l-r) Dr. Kate Stewart, Richelle Brittain, Tamika Keener, Sharunda Henagan and Camille Hart; (front, l-r), Nicki Spencer, Cheri Thriver and Dr. Bonnie Hatchett. Not pictured are graduates Allene Higgins, Kaiden O’Suilleabhain and Veronica Warren.

Learning how research is done at UAMS and how they can be a part of it was an eye-opener for the nine new graduates of the Translational Research Institute’s inaugural UAMS Patient Scientist Academy.

Over four two-hour sessions in April, the academy covered research basics such as the difference between blind and double-blind trials, research ethics, and translational research. It was taught by Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., with guest researchers who provided their unique perspectives, from biostatistics to working with heart patients and cancer patients.

“I didn’t know about translational research,” academy participant Cheri Thriver said during one of the classes prior to the graduation ceremony on May 4. “I didn’t realize how much we can be involved in the research process.”

UAMS’ Dr. Tiffany Haynes encouraged the graduates to continue their involvement in research.

UAMS honored their participation with a brunch and an inspirational talk from Tiffany Haynes, Ph.D., an assistant professor and researcher in the College of Public Health. She noted that UAMS conducts research across the health spectrum, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and mental health.

“What’s at the heart of that research?” she asked. “Y’all!”

“That’s why it’s so important that you took this first step of coming to this Patient Scientist Academy and learning more about the research process and learning how to get involved because it really doesn’t work without you,” said Haynes, also a graduate of TRI’s KL2 Scholar program.

At the end of the ceremony, when the graduates were asked if they would like to share any thoughts before leaving, several expressed their appreciation for UAMS.

“UAMS saved my life,” said Tamika Keener, a lupus survivor who said she was turned away from other treatment centers. “I always say, ‘thank God for UAMS.’ Kudos to the staff and everyone who was a part of this academy. I have a new part of my family – new friends.”

Graduate and cancer survivor Shalunda Riley spoke of her gratitude for research.

Shalonda Riley shared a short video about her battle with late-stage throat cancer, and her successful treatment at UAMS.

“Those treatments came from research,” Riley said. “That’s why this has become so important to me. I am so glad to be here.”

Bonnie Hachett, Ph.D., described herself as a life-long learner and a breast cancer survivor. “I have survived because of research,” she said. “I am thoroughly excited about this opportunity and plan to continue my involvement with UAMS.”

“I’ve already been telling everybody about it,” Thriver said. “I appreciate everyone in here. It was great.”

Shalunda Riley, Cheri Thriver and Kaiden O’Suilleabhain work on a class exercise.

Stewart, a professor in the College of Public Health who leads the Translational Research Institute Community Engagement Program, said the graduates will have the opportunity to become involved in a number of ways, including serving on research advisory boards, patient advisory boards, and as citizen reviewers of research grant applications.

“We had a great group of participants,” Stewart said. “We hope the academy has given them knowledge that will enrich their involvement and really make a difference in the quality of our research and patient care.”

The graduates are: Richelle Brittain, Bonnie Hatchett, Ph.D., Sharunda Henagan, Allene Higgins, Tamika Keener, Kaiden O’Suilleabhain, Shalonda Riley, Cheri Thriver, and Veronica Warren.400

Fire Alarm Disrupts, Does Not Deter TRI ‘A-Team’

Despite a fire alarm evacuation, the TRI study team kept testing on schedule in UAMS Parking 3 for research participant Homer Paul (center). Team members are (l-r) Cynthia Witkowski, Angela Moore, Ashley Sides, Dr. Rohit Dhall and Shannon Doerhoff. (photo courtesy Homer Paul)

Homer Paul, a research participant, was in the midst of a 10-hour series of blood draws and neurological tests for a new Parkinson’s disease drug when the fire alarm sounded at the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s (TRI) Clinical Trials Innovation Unit on the fifth floor of the Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute building.

The research team, which included TRI Director of Clinical Trials Cynthia Witkowski, R.N., Angela Moore, R.N., and Ashley Sides, a research coordinator, grabbed supplies and walked with Paul to the adjacent parking garage. Witkowski said Paul was at the two-hour point after receiving his first dose of the drug and needed neurological and blood tests every 30 minutes.

Paul, 57, who lives near Conway, recalls being impressed by their determination to complete the study that April 27. “They were pretty adamant about getting blood samples exactly on time,” he said. “We went down a walkway that connects other buildings, and we found a spot and took a blood sample right there. I still had all my IV stuff hooked up on my arm.”

“It was kind of funny because I thought, ‘these nurses are relentless,’” he said. “I started calling them the A-Team.”

He asked to have his photo taken with the research team, which is posted above.

Also present as part of the study team were Rohit Dhall, M.D., a UAMS neurologist who is the study’s principal investigator, neurologist Lotia Mitesh, M.D., sub-investigator, and Shannon Doerhoff, A.P.N.

Dhall said the study team performed exceptionally under the circumstances. “I was impressed with the team’s professionalism and how it managed the situation with the best interest of the patient at heart,” he said. “Mr. Paul also responded wonderfully. He helped ensure the integrity of that day’s results.”

Paul’s admiration for the nursing staff didn’t stop with their work during the fire alarm. He said he had also watched them figure out how to fix a malfunctioning electrocardiogram (ECG) machine. “I was impressed. From mechanics to nurses – I have so much gratitude for their dedication.”

With an extended dose, the drug being tested could potentially provide longer-lasting relief from Parkinson’s symptoms than existing medications. Dhall, Paul’s doctor, alerted him to the study, telling him he would be a good candidate for it.

Paul agreed to participate, saying it is a way for him to give back.

“This is my way of contributing to the cause – to finding new drugs that let us go through our everyday lives like a normal person,” he said.

Faith, Community Leaders Address Health Disparities

Karen Yeary introduces Wana Bing, Nia Aitaoto, and Sheldon Ricklon to discuss Pacific Islander health in Arkansas.

The importance of partnerships and networking to reduce health disparities was emphasized April 7 at the Community Campus Partnership Conference to address health disparities held at the Four Points by Sheraton in Little Rock.

The conference, presented by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), brought together over 200 faith and community leaders, educators, health care providers and researchers to discuss health equity in Arkansas.

“This is an opportunity for us, as researchers, to explain to community leaders what community-based participatory research is, as well as an opportunity to share the research we’ve been working on with the faith community and what we have found along the way,” said Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D, R.N., associate professor in the UAMS College of Public Health’s Health Behavior and Health Education Department and conference planning committee chairperson.

Attendees are able to utilize the conference to identify potential partners, as well as tie already existing community programs to ongoing research.

Keynote speaker Joshua Dubois, former White House director of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships under President Barak Obama, discussed how effective it is for people in health care to partner with hospitals, the community and other leaders to reduce health disparities.

Dubois offered the “Memphis Model,” as an example of a community working together for health equity. The model shows that by engaging faith-based communities in partnerships, health care providers can build relationships with communities and determine how to reduce those existing health disparities.

The morning session featured Wana Bing, project manager for the UAMS Office of Community Health and Research; Nia Aitaoto, Ph.D., co-director of the UAMS Center for Pacific Islander Health; and Sheldon Ricklon, M.D., associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Family and Preventive Medicine.

Northwest Arkansas is home to the largest population of Marshall Islanders outside of the country itself. The panel gave an overview of the history of this population coming to Arkansas and discussed the importance of the Marshallese community engaging in research.

The Marshallese in northwest Arkansas have high rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases, as well as disparities such as access to health care and healthy food options. This makes it even more important for them to engage with researchers so these disparities can be addressed.

The afternoon closed with breakout sessions on six main topics: service learning, brainstorming on addressing health issues in the community, community-based participatory research training, faith and government collaborations for health equity, mental health in faith communities, and best practices to engage faith communities.

The conference was supported by grants from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Nursing Workforce Diversity grant, the UAMS Translational Research Institute, and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. It was held in collaboration with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, the Arkansas Department of Health and Baptist Health Physician Partners.

How TRI Became a Catalyst for a Governor’s Cup Victory

UAMS’ Amanda Stolarz, Pharm.D., Ph.D., recently celebrated her team’s victory in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup business plan competition. The team, Rejuvenics Technologies, won the $25,000 top prize with its idea for commercializing a drug-delivery system to reduce the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

Just under a year ago, the business side of research was hardly on her radar. Her mindset was: “I don’t want to do business at all; I want to do science.”

But Stolarz, having just received her Ph.D. last summer, soon gained new perspective.

As a postdoctoral fellow, she was encouraged to attend last summer’s Health Sciences Entrepreneurship Boot Camp by Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., who explained that discoveries don’t magically go from the laboratory to the clinic. Rusch chairs the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and leads the Translational Research Institute’s (TRI) educational efforts.

“The boot camp opened my eyes,” Stolarz said. “It showed me that if you want to see what you discover in the lab actually help people, you have to go through this process.”

So when she was invited to be part of the business-plan team that won the Governor’s Cup, she was more inclined to participate.

“Without the boot camp, it would have been a much harder sell for me to join the Rejuvenics Technologies team,” she said.

The idea of establishing entrepreneurship training for researchers, Rusch said, stems from TRI. Laura James, M.D., TRI director and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research, broached the idea and it was included as a key feature of TRI’s application for a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).

When Philip Mayeux, Ph.D., alerted Rusch about a funding opportunity that could support an entrepreneurship boot camp, Rusch was able to borrow from the work she had done for the CTSA application. Working with Nancy Gray, Ph.D., director of BioVentures, they received $50,000 in supplemental funding tied to the National Institute of General and Medical Sciences T32 Systems Pharmacology and Toxicology Training Program grant led by Mayeux.

Entrepreneurial luminaries were brought in to the boot camp, including Carol Reeves, Ph.D., associate vice provost for entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF). Reeves, who has a national reputation for developing entrepreneurs, was excited to be part of the UAMS boot camp and predicted it would lead to meaningful collaborations between the sister institutions.

Stolarz is the chief science officer for Rejuvenics Technologies, a startup at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Its other officers and team members are Joshua Phillips, Tiffany Jarrett and Mary Rivard, all full-time Executive MBA students at the UAF Walton School of Business.

The startup initially worked with a product that didn’t pan out in their market validation study. What they found next turned out to be a great fit for Stolarz: technology with a potentially broad application for preventing a multitude of chemotherapy side effects.

“I got really excited because my dissertation was on finding ways to treat and prevent side effects from chemotherapy,” she said.

The technology being commercialized was developed as a joint collaboration between UAF and UAMS. The lead inventor is Daniel Fologea, Ph.D., formerly at UAF and now at Boise State University, who worked with Michael Borrelli, Ph.D., in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Radiology.

Rejuvenics Technologies is working with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and hopes to also collaborate with Houston-based M.D. Anderson Cancer Treatment Center.

Stolarz is hopeful they can develop a product that will lead to improved quality of life for cancer patients.

“This technology is designed to decrease the toxic side effects of chemotherapy while potentially increasing efficacy against tumors so we can beat cancer without beating down the patient,” she said.

The TRIbune is Here!

TRI’s March-April newsletter, The TRIbune, features a breakthrough success in research collaboration with the adoption of SMART IRB by all the CTSA sites across the country, including UAMS. This new single IRB capability is expected to spur inter-institutional collaborations for multisite clinical trials and help avoid trial delays. We also note the numerous cross-CTSA collaborations that involve UAMS researchers and TRI. Along those lines, we highlight a recent retreat on data available to researchers through the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement. The retreat was enlightening for research leaders from UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. Our TRI & Me feature spotlights Donald Mock, M.D., Ph.D., who leads our Pilot Studies Program, and you can view the latest TRI-cited publications.

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TRI Biomedical Informatics Pilot Awards

The UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) has approved four research pilot study awards totaling about $166,000.

Nine applicants sought awards of up to $50,000 for one-year projects that utilized translational biomedical informatics approaches to improve health and solve health care issues of rural and underserved populations.
The 2017 pilot awardees and their project titles are:

Kristie Hadden, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine, Division of Medical Humanities, “Patient health literacy screening: An informatics approach.”
Se-Ran Jun, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Informatics, “Genomic surveillance of mumps outbreak in Arkansas using third generation sequencing technology.”
Atul Kothari, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, “Molecular epidemiology and transmission of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) in nosocomial settings.”
Bradley Martin, Ph.D., Pharm.D., professor, College of Pharmacy, “Development, validation, and implementation of an opioid risk prediction tool.”

“The purpose of our pilot awards is to help researchers develop novel technologies and methods and to test the feasibility of their approaches,” said Laura James, M.D., TRI director and associate vice chancellor for clinical and translational research. “This year’s focus on collaborations with experts in biomedical informatics will test state-of-the-art solutions to problems common in Arkansas. Each project also has high potential for extramural funding and for application to individuals beyond Arkansas.”

Applications were reviewed and scored by a study section of 23 faculty and community representatives. The study section, led by Donald Mock, M.D., Ph.D., included independent scientists from a wide range of disciplines and from across the country, and community stakeholders from across Arkansas. Inclusion of trained community stakeholders is a novel venture for this pilot program that helps realize the NIH goal of ensuring that studies have the input of the general public, clinicians and professionals in the health industry. This year was the first time that community stakeholders participated in the full review, discussion, and scoring process.

CTSA Consortium Issues Call for Inter-Institutional Pilot Award Applications

Applications Sought for CTSA Inter-institutional Pilot Awards

The Western States Consortium, which includes the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) and four other Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) institutions, has issued the call to all faculty for pilot award applications.

In addition to TRI, the Western States Consortium members are the University of Kentucky, University of New Mexico, University of Kansas Medical Center, and University of Utah, all part of the national CTSA consortium, supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (Note: The University of Kansas Medical Center is not participating in this pilot program.)

The purpose of the pilot awards is to promote inter-institutional collaboration by funding innovative, translational research projects that involve two or more of the four Western States Consortium members. Awards of up to $25,000 will be provided by each participating institution.

For additional details, view the Request for Applications (RFA) document. If you have any questions, please contact Nia Indelicato at NLIndelicato@uams.edu or 501-614-2287.

Applications are due Jan. 19, 2018, at 5 p.m., (CT). Please submit to NLIndelicato@uams.edu.

The 2017 inter-institutional RFA is the fourth pilot funding opportunity by the Western States Consortium.

Key Dates:

IRB Submission Deadline: Nov. 24, 2017
Application Deadline: Jan. 19, 2018 5:00 pm Central Time
Notice of intent to fund at each CTSA: Feb. 2, 2018
Just In Time Period: Feb. 2, 2018 – Feb. 9, 2018
Submission to NIH for Prior Approval of Human Subjects: Feb. 12, 2018
Funding Cycle: April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019

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TRI Part of NIH Milestone to Accelerate Multisite Clinical Studies

CTSA Program paves way for nationwide single IRB model.

Developing new treatments for diseases often requires large numbers of clinical research participants enrolled in the same study at numerous geographical sites. These multisite clinical trials are well-positioned to discover whether a promising therapeutic is safe and effective, and may provide medical professionals with the information needed for treating their patients. However, the initiation of such studies may be delayed because each site typically relies on its own Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to provide ethics reviews of the risks and benefits of the proposed research.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is leading policy and programmatic initiatives to streamline this overly cumbersome process. NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) announced today that all Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program sites (including the UAMS Translational Research Institute) have signed on to the NCATS Streamlined, Multisite, Accelerated Resources for Trials (SMART) IRB authorization agreement. This agreement — which now includes a total of more than 150 top medical research institutions — will enable all participating study sites to rely on the ethics review of one IRB for each study, making it possible to initiate multisite studies within weeks instead of months. For patients waiting to enroll in a study, this could make a life-saving difference.

The SMART IRB authorization agreement serves as a model to help investigators adhere to the NIH’s policy on single IRB use for multisite studies. This policy was designed to improve IRB efficiencies while ensuring the protection of research participants so that research can proceed expeditiously.

The authorization agreement effort was led by Harvard Catalyst, University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and Dartmouth Synergy. Through these institutions, a team of NCATS-supported SMART IRB ambassadors facilitated and provided critical guidance and support to assist institutions in joining and implementing the SMART IRB authorization agreement.

“This milestone is a giant step toward a nationwide model for greater efficiency in IRB review, which is critical to getting more treatments to more patients more quickly,” said NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D. “It was made possible by the teamwork of hundreds of experts across the country who worked together to achieve what was thought to be impossible even a few years ago.”

In addition, the SMART IRB authorization agreement will provide the foundation for NCATS’ Trial Innovation Network central IRBs. The Trial Innovation Network is a collaborative CTSA Program initiative designed to address critical roadblocks in clinical research, and to optimize and streamline the clinical trial and studies process.

Next steps for the NCATS SMART IRB Platform include the development of education, training and harmonization of best practices for a single IRB review. Learn more at https://ncats.nih.gov/expertise/clinical/smartirb and https://smartirb.org (link is external).

About the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS): To get more treatments to more patients more quickly, NCATS incorporates the power of data, new technologies and strategic collaborations to develop, demonstrate and disseminate innovations in translational science. Rather than targeting a particular disease or fundamental science, NCATS focuses on what is common across all diseases and the translational process. Learn more at https://ncats.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

K Awards Informational Session Recording, Slides Available

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UAMS Visitor Talks Latino Health Paradox and Cinco de Mayo

A couple of common misconceptions about Hispanics were highlighted in talks by David E. Hayes-Bautista, Ph.D., who visited UAMS and the Clinton School of Public Service last week.

Hayes-Bautista, a distinguished professor of medicine from the University of California, Los Angeles, noted that Latinos are often incorrectly lumped with other minorities when health disparities are discussed.

Like other minorities, Hispanics have the commonly cited risk factors of lower income, low education and low access to health care. And yet, for many conditions, the health of Hispanics is just as good as whites and in some cases better. For example, Hispanics in the United States have a 30 percent lower rate of heart disease – the leading cause of death – than whites.

“Whoa, lower?” Hayes-Bautista asked during a presentation to UAMS faculty. “Shouldn’t it be higher?”

The same is true for cancer, the second leading cause of death. Hispanics nationally have a nearly 40 percent lower rate of cancer deaths than whites. In Arkansas, Hispanics have a 70 percent lower death rate from cancer.

Hayes-Bautista said Hispanics/Latinos bring healthy behaviors from their native countries. For example, the smoking rate among Hispanics is about half that of whites in Arkansas.

But those good behaviors are weakened in their U.S.-born children, who have higher rates of poor health behaviors.

For more than three decades he has studied the “Latino Epidemiological Paradox,” the tendency of Latino Americans to have health outcomes comparable to or better than their non-Hispanic white counterparts in the United States, and the implications of this paradox for populations, chronic diseases and communicable diseases.

Hayes-Bautista’s study of Hispanic culture and history led him to write the book El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition, a topic he presented at the Clinton School. The public event and reception was sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute and the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs, as well as the Clinton School.

Cinco de Mayo marks the Mexican military victory over the invading French army on May 5, 1862, but it’s more widely celebrated in the United States than in Mexico. The victory, he explained, prevented an alliance that would have benefited the Confederacy. Hispanics were against slavery and sided with the Union. The May 5 victory was the turning point in France’s attempt to create a monarchy over Mexico that would ally with the Confederacy. For U.S. Latinos from Mexico, the victory became a rallying cry for the Union.

In 1996, Cinco de Mayo got a U.S. postage stamp, and in 2005 it became an annual celebration in the White House and is now recognized widely across the country.

“If you ask these millions of people why are we celebrating, nobody knows. It’s just a party for some,” Hayes-Bautista said.

Billy Thomas, M.D., vice chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs, presented David E. Hayes Bautista, Ph.D., with an Arkansas Traveler certificate following his talk at the Clinton School.

His UAMS talks are available at http://bit.ly/2nk4wMI (hosted by Peds Place) and http://bit.ly/2nPG5YW (hosted by College of Pharmacy).

His talk at the Clinton School will be available soon at: http://www.clintonschoolspeakers.com.

Hayes-Bautista is also director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. For the past five years, he has been chosen one of the 101 Top Leaders of the Latino Community in the U.S. by Latino Leaders Magazine. In 2012, he received the Association of American Medical Colleges Herbert W. Nickens Award for his lifelong concerns about the educational, societal and health care needs of underrepresented groups.

Hayes-Bautista has written or edited nine books on Latino health and culture and is a frequent contributor of opinion pieces to major newspapers. He has published articles in journals ranging from Academic Medicine to Salud Pública de México. He has authored dozens of proposals for funded research projects, and has given hundreds of presentations to medical and lay communities and to government agencies concerned with the nation’s health care system. Some of his center’s research on the emergence of the Latino population and society in California during the Spanish colonial, Mexican Republic, and U.S. statehood periods appears in his recent book, El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition (U.C. Press, 2012).

Other co-sponsors of his two-day visit were the UAMS College of Pharmacy, Arkansas Center for Health Disparities in the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, League of United Latin American Citizens, and the Joel E. Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.