“Research!Louisville is a great opportunity to explore the important role UofL research plays in our day-to-day lives,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. “That work positively impacts our world, from creating meaningful educational experiences and career pathways for students to developing innovative new technologies and companies.”

This year, R!L highlighted 365 abstracts for presentation. Among the scientific poster competition participants represented were masters and doctoral engineering students, NCI R25 undergraduate students, cancer and health disparity Summer Bridge Program students, Brown Cancer Center high school scholars, dental students, masters and doctoral basic science students, medical students, distinction tract medical students, case reports, postdoctoral scholars, research associates, research staff, PharmDs, masters and doctoral public health students, nursing students, medical residents, clinical fellows and faculty.

A full list of award winners and their slide presentations, as well as photos/recording of the closing ceremony are available on the .

Richard Woychik, director of the National Institute of Environmental Science and the National Toxicology Program delivered the keynote address, “Looking to the Future of Environmental Health Sciences.” Woychik oversees federal funding for biomedical research to discover how the environment influences human health and disease. His lecture drew a full house and was preceded with an introduction by UofL President Kim Schatzel.

R!L’s symposium featured seminars, presentations and lectures on a variety of subjects, including nursing research, environmental health sciences, anti-racism research, IRB protocol and more.

The event schedule included a Q&A forum with renowned medical ethicist and author, Harriett Washington. The School of Nursing presented Imelda Wright, assistant professor of nursing, whose research focuses on the effects of perioperative nurse practice and the environment on patient safety in the operating room. UofL’s Social, ����ֱ��al and Behavioral IRB presented a workshop to provide an overview of the UofL SBE IRB and HSPP Office. The IRB also hosted a workshop geared toward biomedical researchers from the UofL Health Sciences and Shelby Campuses. The Research Integrity Office presented Leslie Hollie, a distinguished expert in health care fraud and economic crimes, including grant fraud with a concentration in foreign influence/interference and administrative conflict of interest investigations.

The Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences (CIEHS) hosted two forums of presentations by Pilot Project awardees and Research Voucher awardees highlighting their accomplishments from their third-year awards. The Office of HSC Diversity and Inclusion hosted a panel discussion, “The Past is Present: Slavery & Medicine in Louisville History” and an anti-racism program which supports anti-racism research occurring at the University of Louisville which encourages further research aimed at impacting racial inequities.

Juw Won Park, director of the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences Biostatistics and Informatics Facility Core, director of Brown Cancer Center Bioinformatics Core, and colleagues discussed their research interest in bioinformatics and computational genomics which requires high-performance computing. Finally, R!L sponsored a seminar at the Kentucky Science Center for students in grades 7-12 with a biomedical focus. The day also included a “Pulse of Surgery” program, a real-time, open-heart surgery. The full schedule of 2023 events are on the .

The co-chairs of R!L, Jon Klein, vice dean for research, and Chris States, associate dean for research, along with the R!L Steering Committee, look forward to R!L 2024. Look for announcements of dates/agenda in UofL Today.

“Research!Louisville is a great opportunity to explore the important role UofL research plays in our day-to-day lives,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. “That work positively impacts our world, from creating meaningful educational experiences and career pathways for students to developing innovative new technologies and companies.”

The event includes a presentation by author and medical ethicist Harriet Washington on Thursday, Oct. 5 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at Kornhauser Auditorium on the Health Sciences Center campus presented by UofL’s Office of Institutional Equity and the HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Washington’s latest work is the award-winning “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present.” 

UofL News caught up with V. Faye Jones, a pediatrician and associate vice president for health affairs/diversity initiatives at the UofL Health Sciences Center, and Kiana Fields, coordinator, UofL Office of Diversity and Inclusion, to talk about the importance of Washington’s research.

UofL News: What kind of perspective does Harriet Washington bring to the discussion about racial health disparities?

���DzԱ��:��She brings great insight into medical ethics and racism, how they intersect with each other. Our work focuses on the harms inflicted on historically minoritized populations by bringing attention to that history now. For many people, it’s the first time they are hearing that history. She tells us about things we may have not delved as deep in as we should have and holds all of us accountable for it.

�󾱱�����:��Washington’s been doing this work for decades. She saw a need and a gap within the literature to address the longitudinal atrocities that have taken place. In addition to medical apartheid, she has talked about the erosion of informed consent and how it’s systemic racism.
She incorporates different identities and different systems of oppression and explores the health impacts and the ethical dilemmas that exist as well.

UofL News: What are some of the specific ways Washington has shined a light on little-known history of medical inequity?

Fields: She started going deeper into her research for medical apartheid when she was working in a hospital and saw medical files of kidney failure patients that were different for Blacks and whites. While the files were comparatively similar, in the Black patient’s file, it said imminent demise was expected. That’s when she knew some of her suspicions were true and there was more that needed to be uncovered. One other medical story is about J. Marion Sims, who was known as the father of gynecology. This physician and researcher conducted painful experiments without anesthesia using enslaved women, which ultimately led to important gynecological advances. There is a lack of acknowledgement of the harms that were done in that way.

Jones: First, we need to acknowledge this, showing that these disparities exist and then understanding why they exist, and then developing and implementing strategies to change it. Just like Kiana said about the kidney patients, there are so many things where if you’re black then you get this type of treatment, and if you’re not black you get this. So how is that right? It’s not. You focus on these things so that we can correct and hopefully improve patient care and address health disparities to get us more to that standard of health equity.

UofL News: According to CDC data, Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, with most of the maternal deaths being preventable. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality health care, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias.��How does Washington’s examination of the history of medical inequities help inform the present?

Fields: With Black maternal and infant mortality disparities, we often think that if you were in a higher socioeconomic status that you would be exempt. But a great example of that is Serena Williams. She had preeclampsia for her first pregnancy and the physicians didn’t take her concerns seriously, and so she found herself in a very precarious situation where both her life and her child’s life were in danger.

Jones: When you look at what happened with Serena Williams and the pulmonary embolism, I think it’s important to note that if that can happen to a person of that stature, that wealth and who is that well known, then what is happening to people who don’t have voices? Are they invisible? With Black maternal mortality, it’s amazing how it is present in every community, including in Jefferson County. There is such a disparity there and we must be able to say yes, it exists, and to look into the root causes of it and do something about it, not just talk about it.

UofL News: For those who come to hear Harriet Washington’s presentation on October 5, what questions and reflections do you hope it prompts for people?

���DzԱ��:��One thing I would hope it would prompt is to ask what does it look like in the health care system and where we are right now where we live and what kind of things can we do? Each one of us can make a difference here. We are not waiting for somebody else to take that banner and run with it, but what can we do as individuals to make that difference? Because each of us have the power to make a change.

Fields: I believe Harriet Washington, in her work, is elevating that we all have a shared responsibility to start to disrupt these systems of oppression and acknowledge and reimagine our health care system to benefit the most vulnerable populations in our society. How do we continue to strive to uncover the hidden voices? How do we continue to not only take action, but also start reconciling the atrocities and healing some of the harm that has been done so that we can create interventions that are long lasting?

for the event.

Research!Louisville is the annual exposition of health-related research in the Louisville Medical Center. The 2016 event will include showcases of scientific research, lectures and activities for scientists of all ages from Oct. 11-14.

Investigators from high school through professional faculty will present their research in five poster sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building (KCCTRB). Awards for top research presentations will be announced on Friday following the keynote address by Birnbaum.

Other events during the week include:

• InNet – The new online matchmaking tool
  to help UofL investigators match their skills with potential collaborators in industry and research will host a launch party, Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. in room 101 of KCCTRB.
• Kentucky Science Center – S.T.E.M. careers – More than 200 high school students will be introduced to science careers through interactive sessions in which they will take a patient history, engage in patient-interaction role-play with standardized patients, and practice suturing in a workshop courtesy of the UofL School of Medicine Standardized Patient Program and the Paris Simulation Center. Students also will have the opportunity to interact with the operating room at KentuckyOne Health in “Pulse in Surgery,” in which students observe a live-streamed open-heart surgery while asking questions of the operating room staff in real time. Wednesday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.–1:30 p.m at the Kentucky Science Center.
• Beer with a Scientist – The leading-edge ways researchers and clinicians are diagnosing and curing cancer right here in Louisville. Wednesday, Oct. 12, 8 p.m. at Against the Grain Brewery, 401 E. Main St.
• Science and Innovation in the Public Interest – Karen Kashmanian Oates, PhD, professor of biochemistry and dean of Arts & Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will discuss science and innovation in the public interest.��She will explore the role of educators in not only imparting knowledge to students, but helping them understand how to use that knowledge to benefit society. Thursday, Oct. 13, at 10:30 a.m. in room 124 of KCCTRB.
  

• Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Children’s Health – Health inequities among children result in poorer quality of life for individuals in our nation. Glenn Flores, MD, Distinguished Chair of Health Policy Research at the Medica Research Institute, a Research Affiliate in the Department of Health Sciences Research at the Mayo Clinic, will speak on “Racial and ethnic disparities in children’s health and health care and their successful elimination.” Thursday, Oct. 13, noon to 2 p.m. in room 101 of the KCCTRB.
  
• Clinical/Translational Research Summit – A dozen areas of clinical and translational research will be highlighted, each with 10-minute presentations. Areas include cancer, cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, biomarkers, personalized medicine, gastro-intestinal metabolism, dentistry, infectious diseases, public health, nursing, neurosciences/spinal cord injury and transplant. The event is sponsored by UofL, KentuckyOne Health, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and the Chi Institute for Research and Innovation (CIRI). Friday, Oct. 14, 8 a.m.��to noon in room 101 of KCCTRB.

More information about the 21st annual Research!Louisville is .��