Editor’s note: We have updated our Research Day 2025 coverage to include videos. Please see links below.
Spanning two days for the first time, TRI Research Day 2025 showcased advancements in translational science with a focus on harnessing clinical data in Arkansas and across the United States.
Day 1 featured a keynote by Elizabeth A. Shenkman, Ph.D., who discussed leveraging OneFlorida+’s data network containing information on 28 million patients for clinical trials (https://youtu.be/CaNNwb4Y574). Day 2 shifted the focus to community engagement and maternal health, highlighted by a keynote from Sharla Smith, Ph.D., addressing challenges and opportunities in improving maternal care outcomes.
Attended by 169 UAMS faculty, staff, trainees and community partners, TRI Research Day on April 10–11 highlighted how translational science — powered by large‑scale data networks and community engagement — can accelerate the pace of discovery.
DAY 1
With the theme “Integrating Data to Further Translational Science,” this day included a poster session and oral presentations by TRI-supported early-career researcher trainees and pilot awardees. The day was capped by Shenkman’s keynote, in which she described the many ways that data linkages across the U.S. through OneFlorida+ PCORnet, which includes UAMS, is powering impactful biomedical research.
Shenkman is professor and chair of the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and co-director of the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
She also highlighted OneFlorida+ key linkages: birth and death certificates, Medicaid and state Children’s Health Insurance Program claims, prenatal screening, environmental exposome data, social determinants of health, and adverse events. Tumor registry and biospecimen data also offer cancer research possibilities, while monthly data uploads ensure timeliness.
“OneFlorida+ is an exceptional data repository,” she said, noting that UAMS investigators can query aggregate data and obtain site‑specific cohorts.
A hallmark of OneFlorida+ PCORnet, Shenkman noted, is the ability to re‑identify patients with IRB approval, a critical feature for clinical trials conducted in real-world settings, also known as pragmatic trials. “That is really important for carrying out pragmatic clinical trials,” she said, emphasizing that UAMS could leverage the network to recruit diverse cohorts and streamline study enrollment.
After her presentation, Shenkman encouraged UAMS to capitalize on its multidisciplinary strengths. “UAMS has a really diverse faculty in terms of their multidisciplinary training and backgrounds,” she said. “You have great clinicians and great biomedical informaticians. Bringing all that talent together to work with the data and apply for PCORI grants will lead to new and novel ways to address our country’s pressing health care issues.”
Her talk was followed by a demonstration by a panel of data experts on how to navigate the process of accessing and leveraging data for a potential study on congenital syphilis. With TRI Director Laura James, M.D., serving as moderator, the panel introduced the Arkansas All Payer Claims Database at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) and highlighted how state insurance claims data can complement resources like electronic health records data from UAMS or Arkansas Children’s Hospital available through ARLife, a program in development by TRI.
Shenkman joined the panel, whose members included:
- Kenley Money, MFA, director of Information System Architecture at ACHI
- Nichole Stanely, Ph.D., director of Analytics at ACHI
- Pele Yu, M.D., chief medical information officer at Arkansas Children’s and professor of pediatrics, biomedical informatics and public health.
Day 2
Community-Engaged Research Takes Center Stage on Day 2
Day 2 of TRI Research Day spotlighted the power of community engagement in improving health outcomes, with a focus on maternal health. The day opened with a compelling keynote by Sharla Smith, Ph.D., founder of the Kansas Birth Equity Network (KBEN), who is working to reduce maternal mortality through grassroots partnerships and translational science.
With the theme “Community Engaged Research Day: Impacting Community Health through Translational Science,” the day also included:
- Presentations from three early-career K12 scholars who participated in TRIumph, TRI’s scientific communications training, to help them explain their research to a general audience.
- Roundtable discussions led by TRI community partners who received research training and seed funding.
- A panel discussion about Arkansas’ maternal health challenges.
Smith, a graduate of the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, is leading an NIH-funded study aimed at improving clinical care for pregnancy-related hypertension and preeclampsia.
Healthy Blue, a Medicaid-supported health plan, is also providing mini grants totaling $50,000 to grassroots KBEN members and organizations working to address gaps in maternal, paternal and infant health.
The network engages over 160 members in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas. “We meet bimonthly on Zoom with parents, doulas, midwives, health organization leaders, researchers and physicians. Everyone’s at the table trying to find solutions,” Smith said.
The Day 2 roundtable discussions (https://youtu.be/MJFySV5f5w8) allowed attendees to hear from the leaders of three community-based organizations who participated in TRI’s six-month training Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL), which is led by the institute’s Community Engagement Core. In addition to learning how to conduct research that would benefit their organization, they each received seed funding of $2,500. The organizations’ leaders gave a 10-minute overview of their work and took questions from the attendees. The organizations, presenters and use of the seed funding were:
- Women and Children First, Sarah Bradburry, New Mom and Baby Care Baskets
- Healing in the Hood, Shelly Gillespie and Sandy Gillespie, O.P.P.S. Boxing Club
- Giving. Others. Ambition. Together. (GOAT), Kelvin Parker, Building Young Champs
Since going through the training in 2022, Parker said the knowledge he gained through CPEARL has helped him grow his afterschool GOAT program for 10–12-year-olds in Little Rock from three days a week with about a dozen children to five days a week with 45-50 children.
“UAMS is where it all started,” he said of his program, which teaches key life skills. “I learned so much. I was able to get into the grant writing, find funding sources and get my name out in the community a little more, and we’ve grown rapidly.”
Research Day concluded with the 2022 documentary “Giving Birth in America: Arkansas” highlighting the challenges that Arkansas women face in accessing maternal health care, focusing on the impact of limited insurance coverage and barriers to care in rural areas. A panel discussion followed with UAMS’ Alexandra Marshall, Ph.D., moderating. Marshall is associate professor and chair of the College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
The panelists were:
- Keneshia Bryant-Moore, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, professor, College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
- Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
- Zenobia Harris, Ph.D., executive director, Arkansas Birthing Project.
Oral Presentations Highlight Work in TRI Programs
Research Day 2025 included oral presentations from eight researchers in four TRI programs, listed below with their project titles.
K12 Mentored Research Career Development Award Program Scholars
- Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
Remote Patient Monitoring in Pregnancy Care: Using Implementation Science to Improve Uptake and Sustainability; https://youtu.be/wvfyllKHzuc - Shiloah Kviatkovsky, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Effects of Collagen Peptide Supplementation on Connective Tissue Remodeling, Functional Outcomes, and Wound Healing after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA); https://youtu.be/LRdoDqDhZLY
T32 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship Trainees
- Ashley Pike, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, Psychiatric Research Institute, College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry
A Quantitative Connectome Approach to Cognitive Function in MS; https://youtu.be/ts8P66IXod0 - Henry Palfrey, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
VoluSense: Revolutionizing Early Bleeding Detection to Improve Uptake and Sustainability; https://youtu.be/y_D_zDjyp60
Implementation Science Scholars
- Jarna Shah, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology
Implementation of Perioperative Nutrition Screening; https://youtu.be/ogH_VzdZzas - Stephen Foster, M.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
Improving Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Management in Primary Care; https://youtu.be/EqZUrSOI658
Pilot Awardees
- Laura Hays, Ph.D., APRN, associate professor, College of Nursing
Is it Time to Let Go? Issues of Control: A Patient-Mediated Health Information Exchange Leveraging Family Health Histories and Genomic Information; https://youtu.be/GGCrMd1GGhY - Jonathan Bona, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics
Accelerating Insights with an Open Drug Information Toolkit; https://youtu.be/eksjLf33KB0
Research Day 2025 Poster Contest Winners
Judges selected winners from six categories in the 2025 Research Day Poster Contest, which included 24 total posters. The winning poster presenters, announced by TRI Director Laura James, M.D., are:
Best Overall Impact (tie)
Mollee Steeley Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, Health and Legal System (HEALS) Lab
Exploring Parenting-Related Stress among Postpartum Mothers Receiving Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
Alicija Urbaniak, Ph.D., instructor, College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Repositioning Monensin: Enhancing Anti-Cancer Activity and Immune Modulation in Breast Cancer Cells
Best Overall Scientific Content
Nicholas Callais, M.D., surgical resident research fellow, College of Medicine Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Research
A New DNA-PKcs Inhibitor with Improved Solubility and Specificity
Best Translational Science
Katy Allison, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor, Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health Department of Health Behavior & Health Education
Implementation Determinants and Strategies for Remote Patient Monitoring in Obstetrics
Community Advisory Board Choice
Tiffany Miles, Ph.D., instructor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Nutrition
Community Developed and implemented Obesity Intervention in Marvell, Arkansas
Best Overall Visual
Megha Sharma, M.D., associate professor, College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology
Breaking Translational Science Barriers in Neonatal Health Equity
People’s Choice Award
Alexa Escapita, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Diabetes on the Neurodevelopment of Infants