Here are this week’s Accolades, a roundup of some of the honors and accomplishments of College of Medicine and UAMS faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently!
Great Day for Research
The inaugural Translational Research Institute (TRI) Research Day was a big success yesterday thanks to Dr. Laura James and her team in TRI and the contributions of many presenters. The event at Heifer International Headquarters featured keynote presentations by Dr. Rachel Hess, Co-Principal Investigator of the Utah Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and Dr. Stacie Jones, Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology. Also presenting talks were KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Scholars Dr. Jennifer Vincenzo (College of Health Professions) and Dr. Britni Ayers (UAMS Northwest, Community Health & Research); TL1 Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) fellows Dr. Shana Owens (Microbiology/Immunology) and Dr. Thomas Nienaber (Pediatrics); and TRI pilot awardees Dr. Emily Kocurek (Internal Medicine) and Dr. Sara Landes (Psychiatry).
I had a great time as a judge for the poster competition and am delighted to congratulate the winners: Overall Visual – Dr. Cody Ashby (Biomedical Informatics); Overall Content – Dr. Yasir Rahmatallah (Biomedical Informatics); Overall Oral/Discussion – Dr. Melissa Zielinski (Psychiatry); Overall Impact – Dr. Isabelle Racine Miousse (Biochemistry/Molecular Biology); and People’s Choice – Dr. Nishank Jain (Internal Medicine). Learn more about all of the presenters and poster entries in the TRI Research Day program.
Entrepreneurship Award
Congratulations to Dr. Shana Owens, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and team members from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville on taking home the top prize at the 2022 Arkansas Governor’s Cup for student entrepreneurs. Dr. Owens, a member of Dr. Craig Forrest’s laboratory, is CEO of GammaVet. The company has developed a prototype for a commercial diagnostic device that detects a viral infection that plagues nearly one-third of cats. (Read more in this Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story.) The venture is also part of Dr. Owens’ work in the Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) training program, a partnership of the UAMS Translational Research Institute and the UA Sam M. Walton College of Business. As mentioned in today’s top accolade, Dr. Owens also presented on her work at the TRI Research Day. Well done!
Hospital Medicine Leadership
Dr. Franklin John Gray Jr., Assistant Professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine, was inducted as the 2022-2023 President of the Arkansas Chapter of the Society for Hospital Medicine during the chapter’s spring meeting. Congratulations and kudos to Dr. Gray for his service to UAMS, hospitalists and their patients across the state.
Health Literacy and COVID-19
Radiation Oncology resident Dr. Arpan Prabhu and colleagues have published an article exploring the quality and readability of COVID-19 patient education articles online. The article, “Assessing COVID-19 Health Information on Google Using the Quality Education Scoring Tool: Cross-sectional and Readability Analysis,” was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The multi-institution research team found that articles vastly varied in their attributes and levels of bias, and would benefit from revisions for increased readability. Dr. Pearman Parker, an Assistant Professor in the UAMS College of Nursing, also contributed to the project.
Travel Award
A shout-out to Lucy Fry, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Tiffany Weinkopff in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, on being selected to attend and receive a highly competitive travel award for the Molecular Parasitology Meeting at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in September. The award reflects her excellent work in Dr. Weinkopff’s lab, where she studies the pathogenesis of Leishmania, a parasite that is spread by sandflies and causes disease primarily in the tropics and subtropics.
Resident of the Year
Finally this week, very special congratulations to fourth-year General Surgery resident Dr. Tamara Osborn on being voted Resident of the Year by our graduating seniors. This well-earned honor reflects Dr. Osborn’s excellent clinical work and teaching – and so much more. Dr. Katie Kimbrough, Associate Professor and Residency Program Director, sums it up perfectly:
“Dr. Osborn is one of the brightest and most capable people with whom I have worked. I have personally observed her teaching, and she can be consistently found teaching good clinical and operative skills to junior-level residents and students, and she is wonderful at explaining difficult concepts to them. Most importantly, she also models good ethical and moral behavior to junior-level learners. Remarkably, even coping with a family tragedy over the last year, Dr. Osborn has shown a great deal of maturity, poise and resilience throughout this time. She continues to amaze me with her perseverance and dedication to teaching and to our program. I couldn’t be more proud of her. There is no one I can think of more deserving for this award.”