Kate Stewart

PCORI Funds Multistate Transgender Project Led by UAMS Researchers

The national Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is supporting a unique multistate project that builds on its previously funded work in Arkansas to address health care

(L-R) Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., meets with Kyrstopher Stephens and Alex Marshall, Ph.D., M.P.H — (L-R) Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., meets with Krystopher
Stephens and Alex Marshall, Ph.D., M.P.H.

discrimination for transgender/nonbinary individuals – those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

The two-year, $249,892 Engagement Award is co-led by Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., a TRI-supported community engagement leader, and Alex Marshall, Ph.D., M.P.H., at the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Working together with co-investigators at the University of North Carolina and University of Georgia, they will lead development of a Regional Transgender Health Research and Education Collaborative with community collaborators.

“We’re very excited to receive this award and to have such distinguished research collaborators,” Stewart said. Tonia Poteat, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.M.Sc., at North Carolina, has focused her research, teaching and clinical practice on HIV and transgender health disparities. Anneliese Singh, Ph.D., M.S., at Georgia, is a psychotherapist and has research expertise in numerous areas of transgender health.

Key transgender community partners include the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, led by Krystopher Stephens, LaGender Inc. (Georgia), and Triangle Empowerment (North Carolina). The award will provide stipend support for transgender individuals who participate.

The collaborative’s work is in the South where transgender people are more likely to experience health care discrimination, such as being refused care.

The TRIbune Features UAMS Neurosurgeons’ Research

The latest TRIbune features the research of neurosurgeons J.D. Day, M.D., and Thomas W. Morris III. The co-principal investigators hope to help determine if a relatively new surgical procedure is better than standard medical management in certain cases of intracerebral hemorrhage. We also highlight the work of our Community Engagement program and its Community Scientist Academy, which has been adapted for the first time to teach students in the Little Rock School District’s Excel Program. We include news that TRI’s innovative methods for incorporating community members into the grant review process will be studied at five institutions (including UAMS) with support from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The newsletter has our new study of the month led by Clare Nesmith, M.D., and recently cited publications by researchers who received TRI support.

Read The TRIbune

Public Invited to Attend UAMS Community Scientist Academy

Arkansans interested in having a voice in research programs at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) or simply learning how research is done are invited to participate in UAMS’ Summer 2018 Community Scientist Academy.

Sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, the Community Scientist Academy will be on Tuesdays each week May 22 through June 26, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on the UAMS campus in Little Rock.

For questions and to register, contact Nicki Spencer, ndspencer@uams.edu, or (501) 526-6629. The training is being offered at no cost to participants.

Participants in the Community Scientist Academy will interact with UAMS researchers and community members involved in research in small roundtable discussions and other interactive sessions. They will learn:

How researchers decide what health issues to study
The research process
The benefits of individual and community organizations’ involvement in research

Graduates of the Community Scientist Academy will become more knowledgeable volunteers with additional opportunities to help influence UAMS research decisions on behalf of their communities. Examples include serving on:

Standing community advisory boards
One-time community boards created to advise researchers on specific studies
Panels that decide what research grants get funded

For graduates who are leading community organizations, there may also be opportunities to partner with UAMS on community-based research projects.

“The Community Scientist Academy will provide the basic knowledge to strengthen the public’s voice on research steering committees, mentoring committees, review committees, research projects, and in other leadership capacities,” said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., who leads the Translational Research Institute’s Community Engagement program. “We want our fellow Arkansans to understand what we do because their input makes a big difference in our efforts to improve health.”

UAMS researchers conduct clinical studies and community-based studies. Its clinical studies are conducted in UAMS’ hospital and clinics across the state, including at its main campus in Little Rock, its eight regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.