WE C-RAB members share about research. (L-R: Bobby Rogers, Jackie Humphries & Luwana Pettus-Oglesby)

On Saturday, May 6th the West End Community Research Advisory Board (WE C-RAB) hosted a community Stop the Bleed and CPR/AED trainings. “We (the WE C-RAB) had identified the need for this kind of training for the community and were excited to be able to bring this opportunity to Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses community center through our research partners,” said President of the WE C-RAB, Luwana Pettus-Olgesby. The event, called “WE Care to Be Safe”, brought together partnering researchers who have come to the WE C-RAB for feedback, with the Whitney Strong Foundation to provide hands-on life-saving education to the community. Community members were invited directly by WE C-RAB members, as well as through the community center.

Danea Cloyd of the Whitney Strong Foundation demonstrates packing a wound

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow, Cindy Chang, M.D., conducted the Stop the Bleed training with assistance from Michelle Eckerle, M.D. from pediatric emergency medicine and Danea Cloyd from the Whitney Strong Foundation (WSF). The WSF, which is focused on ending gun violence and loss of life, provided tourniquet kits for all participants who completed the training. Dr. Chang had previously come to the WE C-RAB seeking guidance and feedback on her research around conducting the Stop the Bleed with youth. Adam Powell, M.D., pediatric cardiologist, led the CPR and AED training with Drs. Chang and Eckerle assisting. Dr. Powell had come to the WE C-RAB seeking input on a research study involving male high school basketball players and heart health.  

Cindy Chang, M.D. works with WE C-RAB member Vonnie Tawwab on how the tourniquet works

Nearly 50 people were trained, including WE C-RAB members, Seven Hills staff, Woodlawn Parks and Recreation staff and Hughes High School students, among the many community members attending. Each participant was given a Stop the Bleed certificate of completion, a tourniquet kit and a first aid kit, as well as information about participating in research, including tearpads for a sampling of studies. “I work in the ER, so nearly every encounter in that environment is stressful for the families. It was wonderful to be able to interact with the community in a more relaxed environment and give them health information they wanted and seemed to find valuable,” said Dr. Eckerle. Dr. Powell expressed how refreshing it was “to talk to a group so invested and eager in learning about these important skills because they want to support their community. It made for a joyful interaction for me.” The WE C-RAB plans to host 1-2 more community-researcher partnering events this year.

Adam Powell, M.D. presents AED training

About the RPAC and WE C-RAB. The RPAC and WE C-RAB are resources available to across the Academic Health Center interested in learning the research participant or community perspective and improving how research is conducted at the hospital or out in the community. If you are interested in seeking feedback from one of these groups at one of our meetings, or through electronic survey, contact Julie Wijesooriya or learn more here.

On Friday, February 3, 2023 the CCTST is hosting Dr. Carolette Norwood, PhD, MA for a Grand Rounds entitled, “Black Doctors and the Jim Crow Health Infrastructure of Cincinnati”.

Dr. Norwood’s talk will chronicle the history of Black physicians in Cincinnati; the racism they encounter in the profession and the advocacy they undertook in the community.

Dr. Norwood is professor and department head of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University. Dr. Norwood is a Black feminist sociologist whose research explores the implications of violence (structural, spatial, and interpersonal) at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and space on reproductive and sexual health injustice for Black women. Dr. Norwood’s research on Black women’s economic mobility and reproductive (in)justice in Cincinnati collectively informs her first book project tentatively entitled, Jim Crow Geographies: Mapping the Intersections of Poverty, Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Urbane Space, under contract with Columbia University Press.

This off-cycle Grand Rounds event is co-sponsored by UC’s Office of Clinical Research Education Committee for Clinical Research Professionals and will be offering continuing education units. To register for Dr. Norwood’s presentation, please click here.

CCTST Grand Rounds is a monthly virtual seminar series showcasing best practices in clinical and translational science. Recordings from past Grand Rounds presentations can be found on CTRonline.

Maelesha joined the Research Participant Advisory Council (RPAC) and the West End Community Research Advisory Board (WE C-RAB) in August of 2021. While she was initially recruited to participate in the WE C-RAB as a lifelong resident of the West End, she also quickly joined the RPAC due to her and her son’s participation in the longitudinal Imprint Study at Children’s which is following newborns through age 4 to predict how they go through life with illnesses.

She’s the proud mom of 2 boys, Kamryn (2 years old) and Kaiden (8 years old) and loves to dance in her spare time. She’s also an RN at University Hospital in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and has participated in many studies since she was a child. 

Q. What motivated you to participate in research?

Coming from my background of science as a registered nurse and being on that side of policy change, changes in dosage of medication etc., we tend to always talk about evidence based practice. I found it very interesting to get a glimpse of the other side of medicine. It’s a very engaging process, to see it from the very beginning – how things start off as a question and then to see how it expands into a study, which eventually leads to changes in policies, changes in dosage etc.

Q.What has been your favorite aspect of the RPAC and/or research project/study to come to the RPAC?

It is just so fascinating to see it in full cycle. Being a part of RPAC has given me an opportunity to see the full circle of research and how it leads to changes in the healthcare system as a whole.

Q.What would you tell your peers about research who are hesitant to participate?

Being a member of RPAC/WE CRAB has shed light on things that were not visible to me at first. I am beginning to understand how important it is to participate in research. I realize now that there are not many people who look like me or come from the same background as me participating in research. They will never have the answers to solve our problems without our participation. I am doing this to help make a better environment for my future grandchildren. It is very important for the future of our world.

Q.How did you hear about any research in which you participated in? How were you approached or introduced to the studies?

With the Imprint study I was approached at West Chester Hospital where I was having my prenatal appointments. This was the hospital where I wanted to deliver Kamryn. I was 30 weeks pregnant. Initially I had jumped into the study thinking it was going to be about the flu but – as this was around the end of 2019/early 2020 – ended up being about COVID as well. Because of this, I ended up having to consent twice. They were drawing blood as part of my routine checkup appointments and would just ask if they could piggy back on those samples. They then gave me the rundown of what I should expect to happen once Kamryn was born. They explained to me how they would take samples of saliva, stool and blood from Kamryn. In the beginning they were taking nasal Swabs weekly and stool samples monthly, along with the blood draws. Now it is not as intense as before. We just send in monthly samples of stool and weekly nasal swabs.”

Q. Overall has participating in research studies been a positive experience for you?

It has been a positive experience overall. It has been very impactful when it comes to learning new things about myself. It has made me curious and willing to ask questions. It has piqued my interest and has always been a positive situation. I have not only participated in research on the medical level, I have also participated in marketing research for companies like P&G.  I once participated in a study on tampons. I had to store them in the freezer and they would come and pick them up after I used them. I would also have to journal about them. It was fun because I got to express how I felt, I had an opinion to give. It paid too. As a younger person, there was no better feeling than having that cold hard cash in an envelope! I remember making one hundred bucks to do that tampon study for a week. 

Q.What would you say to researchers about RPAC/ WE CRAB about why they should come to the RPAC?

Expand your reach. We can be helpful, if you come to a wall and have no idea what direction you should go we could be helpful with direction. We can help spark new ideas that you probably have never thought about. We could also be that connection to help you get the word out to the community. You could bounce ideas off of us and ask questions you might not be as comfortable asking with other groups of people. I love the conversations that happen between the researchers and us.

About the RPAC and WE C-RAB. The RPAC and WE C-RAB are resources available to anyone at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital interested in learning the research participant or community perspective and improving how research is conducted at the hospital or out in the community. If you are interested in seeking feedback from one of these groups at one of our meetings, or through electronic survey, contact Julie Wijesooriya, julie.wijesooriya@cchmc.org.

On Friday, September 16th, the CCTST is hosting Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson, PhD, MPH for a Grand Rounds entitled, “Toward our Shared Liberation: Reproductive Justice Epidemiology for Action”.

Dr. Sealy-Jefferson’s talk will cover theories and frameworks that ground scholarship on reproductive justice epidemiology as well as empirical examples of scholarship on macrosocial determinants of preterm birth in Black women.

Dr. Sealy-Jefferson is a social epidemiologist whose primary research seeks action to combat manifestations of structural racism that limit the human rights of Black families and communities. She is the Founder, Director, and Principal Investigator of the Social Epidemiology to Eliminate Disparities (SEED) Lab. The mission of the SEED Lab is to conduct high quality epidemiologic research to find solutions to the disproportionate burden of infant mortality among Black women. Specifically, Dr. Sealy-Jefferson’s scholar-activism draws from the Reproductive Justice Framework and seeks to: (1) empirically document associations between systems of oppression and preterm birth (which is the leading cause of infant death), (2) explicate the intervening biologic, social, and psychosocial mechanisms, as well as (3) identify effect modifiers of these associations among Black women. The goal of her scholarship is to inform future intervention studies, policy change, and social activism.

To register for Dr. Sealy-Jefferson’s presentation, please click here.

CCTST Grand Rounds is a monthly virtual seminar series showcasing best practices in clinical and translational science. Recordings from past Grand Rounds presentations can be found on CTRonline.

On Friday, July 22, the CCTST hosted Dr. Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, MPH, MA, FCCP, FCCM, for a Grand Rounds entitled, “A Brief History of Racism in Medicine: Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We Hope to Go”.

This talk provided critical history of how racism shaped medicine and the experience of populations of color within the medical field. It also provided an overview of our present, and how we can make the future of medicine better for everyone.

Dr. Sederstrom began her career at the Center for Ethics at Medstar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. After beginning her PhD studies at Howard University in medical sociology and race, class, and gender inequalities, she was made director of the Center for Ethics and director of the Spiritual Care Department. She proceeded to hold these positions until she left to join Children’s Minnesota in March 2016 where she served as the director of the Clinical Ethics Department for almost 5 years. She has recently joined the executive leadership team at Hennepin Healthcare System as the new chief health equity officer where she will lead efforts in addressing health disparities, equity, and antiracism in the institution and community. She is a member of several professional societies and holds a leadership position in CHEST Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

This talk was also aligned with our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals; since implementing our strategies to increase invited lecturers who identify as underrepresented minorities (URM) in 2020, the number of URM speakers has increased from 13% to 29%.

Dr. Sederstrom’s talk, along with a PDF of her presentation, can be found in CTRonline.

Dr. Kara Ayers (photo courtesy of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center)

The CCTST is excited to have Kara Ayers, PhD as this month’s CCTST Grand Rounds presenter. Dr. Ayers’ presentation is titled, “Advancing Research Through the Inclusion of People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities”. She will discuss the implications of the underrepresentation of disabled people in research-as both participants and researchers-and identify approaches to combat the inequities that result from this underrepresentation. Participants will also learn strategies to help make their online and in-person research more accessible for and inclusive of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In addition to being associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Ayers also serves as associate director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, director of the Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities, and co-founder of the Disabled Parenting Project.

Her research interests include disability identity/culture, healthcare equity, bioethics, community inclusion, and the use of media to teach, empower, and reduce stigma. Dr. Ayers serves on multiple task forces and national and state coalitions related to improving outcomes for people with disabilities. She infuses the mantra, “Nothing about us without us,” into all her scholarly and community-based pursuits.

For more information and to register for Dr. Ayers’ presentation, please click here.

Dr. Minjin Kim (photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati College of Nursing)

K Scholar Dr. Minjin Kim, assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Cincinnati, will be participating in a panel discussion titled “Model Minority/Forever Foreigner: Shedding Light on Anti-Asian American Racism”. Dr. Kim will be discussing cultural humility and will be sharing stories of the racism and discrimination Asian Americans face in healthcare settings.

The virtual panel discussion will be held on Wednesday, May 25th from 7:00-9:00pm. Participants can register here.

This event is amongst a list of activities across the Greater Cincinnati area celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a nationwide celebration that centers the rich history, notable contributions, and diverse experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Click here for more information and to view the full list of events.

The CCTST remains steadfast in our committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in clinical and translational research.  Leaders from the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, & Research Design Core and Integration Across the Lifespan core have initiated a seminar series titled “Methods of Race and Racism in Research.”  As part of this series, Dr. Darshali Vyas, M.D. from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will be joining us on December 8th to discuss the use of race in clinical algorithms.  Reach out to Dr. Katherine Bowers at Katherine.bowers@cchmc.org if you are interested in participating in the seminar series.  See the Community Engagement Core Section for information about Dr. Kamillah Wood, former White House Fellow under the Obama Administration, and as she kicks off the Speaker series for the year.  Finally, every CCTST core has identified SMART goals towards DEI initiatives and we will be implementing them throughout the CCTST.  We are excited as we continue moving forward in this important work.

Jareen Meinzen-Derr, PhD, CCTST Co-Director and Director of the CCTST Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design Program (BERD), has been invited by the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) to serve on its newly formed Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee.

The committee will develop strategies to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across all ACTS activities as well identify key metrics on how to measure DEI within the association.

Dr. Meinzen-Derr will serve on the committee for two years.

Jareen Meinzen-Derr, PhD

Pat Ryan, PhD

Stacey Gomes, MS

Pat Ryan, PhD, Director of the CCTST Translational Workforce Development Core and Stacey Gomes, MS from the CCTST Community Engagement Core have been accepted to participate in the CLIC Cohorts for Change – Anti-Racism Workshop Series. 

This series promotes structural and administrative anti-racism efforts within Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs by engaging small groups of CTSA members from different hubs in a six-month (October 2021 – March 2022), facilitated anti-racism cohort-based workshop series. The series combines synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities and peer-group learning to facilitate short and long-term change, as well as encouraging ongoing organizational reflection and change at participating hubs.

On September 22, 2021, the CCTST co-sponsored a COVID-19 Vaccine event for Cincinnati Public School (CPS) teens with CCHMC Community Relations, CPS, Cincinnati Health Department, and the Center for Closing the Health Gap. It was very well attended, over 140 participants, which included approximately 9 professionals and 20 student panelists. Teen attendees had some great questions and wrote ideas on ways to reach others in their age range. We had 92 teens complete surveys and will be analyzing the data over the next couple of weeks to evaluate the style and effectiveness of the program, as well as explore students’ willingness to get vaccinated.

Cincinnati’s Channel 9 released a story on the event: https://www.wcpo.com/news/coronavirus/covid-vaccine/cincinnati-childrens-town-hall-addressed-teen-vaccine-concerns.

The CCTST also nominated two staff members for the CLIC Cohorts for Change – Anti-Racism Workshop Series: Pat Ryan, PhD from our Translational Workforce Development Core and Stacey Gomes, MS from our Community Engagement Core.  This series promotes structural and administrative anti-racism efforts within Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs by engaging small groups of CTSA members from different hubs in a six-month, facilitated anti-racism cohort-based workshop series. The series combines synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities and peer-group learning to facilitate short and long-term change, as well as encouraging ongoing organizational reflection and change at participating hubs. 

As we prepare our newsletter each month we want to ensure that we are held accountable to our commitment of our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (see www.cctst.org\antiracism). 

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is a wonderful opportunity to support undergraduate students as they investigate their own curiosity around a career path in science. This year, we are excited to announce that one of the CCTST SURF students, Ms. Lekiah Lescott, who happens to be a diverse student from a population underrepresented in medicine, received an Honorable Mention for her research project presentation, entitled “Examining the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Blacks and Whites in the Greater Cincinnati Community.” The data came from one of the CCTST C5G grants.

In addition, the CCTST is partnering with CCHMC and UC College of Medicine to offer a unique training opportunity for faculty to increase our level of leading conversations pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion topics in our work units.  A Core group of faculty across UC and CCHMC have been invited to participate in a Cultural Humility train-the-trainer course that offered by Soul Bird Consulting, LLC.  This train-the-trainer model is meant to support communities and organizations to develop their own facilitators to drive forward efforts around anti-racism and cultural humility.  More on this to come.

There has been a lot of discussion in the news and with our community members about vaccine hesitancy, mistrust, and deliberation.  Many media sources are translating reluctancy to mean disagreement or lack of commitment, when, for many people, it’s about gathering information and making informed decisions.  In the recent JAMA publication, Vaccine Hesitancy Is a Scapegoat for Structural Racism, Dr. Giselle Corbie-Smith summarizes this notion exquisitely, “what I have seen, as a physician and community-engaged researcher, is vaccine deliberation, as individuals weigh the pros and cons of the evidence of vaccine efficacy, loved ones lost in the pandemic, and an overwhelming history of racism in medicine and science.”  Hesitancy does not mean people do not want the vaccine; it means people want the information necessary to make a decision about the vaccine. 

“Equality means giving everyone the exact same resources, whereas equity involves distributing resources based on the needs of the recipients” (Corbie-Smith).  With equity top of mind, a team from the CCTST and CCHMC developed a COVID-19 Vaccine Myths and Facts sheet to address the exact questions that community members in our area have been asking.

Recent updates on other health equity related events and efforts include:

• This year’s Health Equity Day event titled, A Pathway to Excellent and Equitable Health, was held on April 6 and 7, 2021.  We hope to share post-event recordings and resources on our Health Equity and Social Justice webpage. 

• The ACTS Translational Science 2021 conference included a number of great talks focused on DEI.  For a list of featured topics, click here.

• Updated APHA Advancing Racial Equity Discussion Guide.  The guide now includes questions, activities, and resources for six webinar series.

The ACTS Translational Science 2021 Conference featured a number of great talks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).  We are pleased and encouraged that DEI was a prominent focus at this national conference and we hope this sparks institutional and department level conversations and initiatives.

First, Consuelo Wilkins, MD MSCI gave the opening plenary on Clinical and Translational Research’s Role in Tackling Health Inequities.

Other talks/panel discussions included:

• Diversity in the Ivory: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum for Research in Clinical and Translational Science

• Diversity and Inclusion in Translational Science: Success Stories and Lessons Learned

• The Intersection of Precision Medicine and Health Equity in Combating COVID-19

• Strategies to Increase Diversity in Early-Stage Product Development and Small Businesses

• Growing a Diverse Team Through Training Opportunities and Community Partnerships to Increase Diversity in Research Participation

• COVID as a Window into Health Equity

• Broadly Engaged Team Science: Building Trust with Diverse Groups

The closing plenary was presented by Sandro Galea, PhD, on Data, Social Determinants, and Decision Making (in a Time of COVID-19).

Event featured below is part of the UC Department of Environmental & Public Health Sciences, Division of Epidemiology - Thursday Seminar Series.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021 | 12:00-1:00

Presenters:

• Dr. Karen Bankston,
  Professor Emerita UC College of Nursing

• Professor Ligia Gomez,
  Assistant Professor Educator UC College of Arts & Sciences,
  Department of Romance Languages

• Council-member Jan-Michele Lemon Keary,
  Cincinnati City Council

• Dr. Angelico Mendy,
  Assistant Professor of Epidemiology UC College of Medicine,
  Department of Environmental & Public Health Sciences

Virtual Meeting Details:

https://ucincinnati.webex.com/ucincinnati/j.php?MTID=m45866890b30d2dfb3c6f2427afd21767
Or join with the meeting number and password below:
Meeting number: 120 775 5810
Password: MmDchTbk968
You can also join by phone at: 1-415-655-0002
Access Code: 120 775 5810

Events featured below were hosted by Boston University School of Public Health.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Part 1: Why and how do we study race?

Wayne Giles
Dean and Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago

Chanelle Howe
Associate Professor
Brown University

Sherman James
Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Duke
Sanford School of Public Policy

Jennifer Manly
Professor
Columbia University

Jay Kaufman (Moderator)
President
Society for Epidemiologic Research

Presentation Overview:
This series of panels will examine how race and racial health disparities are studied in epidemiology. The first panel in our series will explore the history of census data, how data on race are collected and studied, and the implications of how this data are used in population health science.

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Friday, February 26, 2021

Part 2: Has epidemiology made a difference in race-related health disparities?

Amani Allen
Professor,
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health

Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha
Associate Professor,
Tufts University School of Medicine

Macarius Donneyong
Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University

Joseph Graves
Professor,
Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Pat O'Campo
Professor,
Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Magdalena Cerda (Moderator)
Associate Professor
Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health

Presentation Overview:
This series of panels will examine how race and racial health disparities are studied in epidemiology. The second panel in our series will ask if epidemiology has made a difference in race-related health disparities.

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Friday, February 26, 2021

Part 3: What are the big unanswered questions with respect to race?

Anjum Hajat
Assistant Professor
University of Washington School of Public Health

John Jackson
Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Arjumand Siddiqi
Professor
Dalla Lana School of Public Health

John Rich
Professor
Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health

Martha Werler (Moderator)
Professor and Chair of Epidemiology
Boston University School of Public Health

Presentation Overview:
This series of panels will examine how race and racial health disparities are studied in epidemiology. The third and final panel will conclude our series with a forward-looking focus, asking what are the big unanswered questions for epidemiology with respect to race and how this can guide the future of the field.

The CCTST would like to announce a new mechanism through the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) program to support underrepresented minority (URM) junior and mid-career faculty.  

The BERD program is committed to providing investigators with ready access to research methods support.  As such, BERD provides free 1-hour consultative services to all CCTST investigators who desire methodologic guidance regarding their research projects.  Information to be discussed during the consultation may include developing and refining study hypotheses, guidance regarding a statistical analysis plan, and guidance regarding data management needs.  BERD will refer investigators who require additional support beyond the 1 hour consultation (e.g., conducting a statistical analysis, building a research database) to the appropriate services.

Vouchers are now available to support the academic careers of URM faculty who are at the associate professor level or earlier in their career to access BERD services, such as statistical analysis, for manuscript submissions and internal grant applications.

For all faculty members who are developing an extramural grant application, BERD provides a wide-range of support services towards the grant submission.  These services include (but not limited to) help refining hypotheses, study design, creating the statistical analysis plan (including power/sample size calculations), and assisting with preliminary data analysis.  For faculty members who hold K-equivalent career development awards (e.g., KL2, K08, K25), BERD supports these services as well as provides statistical analysis and data management services. Vouchers are available to eligible faculty investigators for these services.

Click here to learn more about BERD, or contact BERD Director, Jareen Meinzen-Derr, PhD (jareen.meinzen-derr@cchmc.org), if you have any questions.