UW WWAMI Medical Students Present Summer Research Projects

Students in the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program recently presented their summer research projects through poster displays and viewings by academic judges and the public during the recent University of Wyoming WWAMI program's sixth annual Research Symposium.

The Wyoming WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) program is located in the College of Health Sciences. The event was held in conjunction with the Wyoming Medical Society's annual meeting.

"The energy and excitement in the room during the research symposium was palpable. I was so excited to see all of our second-year students professionally discussing their research and community outreach projects together as a class at the Wyoming WWAMI symposium," says Todd Guth, director of the Wyoming WWAMI program. "The students really impressed everyone in attendance at the symposium with their expertise during their presentations in completing their scholarly requirement for the Independent Investigative Inquiry course at the University of Washington School of Medicine."

Michelle Hilaire, interim dean of the College of Health Sciences, says the staff was proud of the UW WWAMI medical students' poster presentation that was coupled with the Wyoming Medical Society's meeting.

"It was a great synergy of excellence provided by health care professionals in the state," she says. "These research poster projects will continue to impact the communities and the research questions identified. We are excited to support these future health care leaders as they continue to impact the state and region as they progress through medical school."

All medical students throughout the five-state WWAMI region are required to complete research during their time in each program. Most students participate in a scholarly community outreach project or scientific research projects during the summer between their first and second years of medical school. Students are required to discuss their summer projects in the form of poster presentations.

Wyoming students wanting to focus on community outreach work side by side with primary care physicians in rural communities as part of WWAMI's Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP). While at their RUOP sites, students complete a community health assessment to identify both community assets and public health issues.

Victoria Toscana, of Gillette, spent four weeks in Rawlins conducting a health education initiative focused on expanding access to women's health care. The women's health clinic in Rawlins closed in 2022, requiring women to travel to receive OB/GYN care, which has become a significant barrier to accessing care.

"From my project, I learned about the importance of community connection in rural towns," Toscana says. "The success of any intervention requires collaboration and an understanding of the community at large."

Cody's Aaron Nichols worked with community partners and the Billings Clinic in Cody to distribute brochures to patients and resource worksheets to providers in order to promote useful information about free resistance-training resources in the region for older adults.

"Through this process, I learned that, while great resources often exist in small communities, disseminating this information to the people who need them the most can be quite difficult," Nichols says. "It is so important to give information to providers, since older adults are more apt to use the resistance-training resources in their communities if their providers engage with them about what's available and why resistance training is important."

Students interested in research can engage in a Scholarship of Discovery (SoD) project by collaborating with a research mentor on a defined research question and project. In her SoD project, Rylie Pilon, of Gillette, studied the accuracy of twitch monitoring devices for anesthesiologists in operating rooms.

"I got to spend my summer in Seattle working in the operating rooms at the University of Washington Medical Center," Pilon says. "This experience taught me so much about anesthesia care and tools that anesthesiologists use to monitor patients during surgery. I worked directly with patients in the clinical setting and conducted research that will help provide better and more precise anesthesia care in the future."

In the lead-up to the research symposium, Emily Schmitt, an associate professor with the Division of Kinesiology and Health and faculty adviser for the Triple I course, supported students in crafting their poster presentations for the symposium.

Judges at the research symposium included University of Washington School of Medicine administrators, including doctors Suzanne Allen, Gabriel Sarah, Elenore Bhatraju and Cynthia Sprenger, as well as Wyoming WWAMI faculty.

Awards were provided by the Wyoming Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and presented by Dr. Sierra Gross, Wyoming ACP chapter governor, and Schmitt.

Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program Research Symposium awardees were:

-- First place, SoD, Sai Kit Ng, Laramie.

-- First place, RUOP, Bradford Burns, Story.

-- Second place, either SOD or RUOP, Rafael Homer, (SoD), Laramie.

-- People's choice, Sabrina Gay, Pinedale.

The People's Choice Award is a separate award category, where people attending the event voted for their favorite research poster.

UW medical student presenters, listed by hometown, name and project title, are:

Buffalo -- Hyrum Ruby, "Facial Nerve Function and Hearing Preservation Outcomes After Vestibular Schwannoma Resection with the Middle Fossa and Retrosigmoid Approaches Using the Subsapsular Dissection Technique."

Burlington -- Matthew Rasmussen, "Narcan Distribution in Powell, WY."

Casper -- Dean He, "Parental Hesitancy Towards Childhood Vaccines in the Wyoming Medicaid Population"; and Tatiana Smith, "Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy for Routine Childhood Immunizations in Gillette, Wyoming."

Cheyenne -- Anh Huynh, "CRISPR-Bac Activation of CDKN2A to Inhibit Skin Cancer."

Cody -- Aaron Nichols, "Improving Participation in Resistance Training Among Older Adults in Park County, WY."

Gillette -- Pilon, "Effect of Thumb Preload on Mechanomyograph Monitoring of Neuromuscular Blockade."

Green River -- Anna Ujvary, "Gynecology Concerns in Pediatric Patients with Genitourinary Vascular Anomalies."

Greybull -- Annaliese Fitzsimmons, "Youth Leadership: A Key to Suicide Prevention in Converse County, WY."

Lander -- Emma Miller, "Reducing Application Barriers for Medical Financial Assistance in Sweetwater County, Wyoming."

Laramie - Brandi Carreau, "Utilizing Community Organizations to Improve HPV Vaccination in Afton, WY"; Rafael Homer, "A Human Cellular Model of Darier Disease Defines New Potential Treatment Strategies" and Ng, "Incidence of Bacterial Bloodstream Infections and Cytokine Release Syndrome, and Biomarker Kinetics to Differentiate them after CAR-T Cell Immunotherapy."

Pinedale -- Gay, "Characterizing Right Ventricle Dysfunction After Loss of Endogenous E2 Production."

Powell -- Kaden Moore, "Semi-Automated Ophthalmic Screening in the Emergency Department."

Sheridan -- Clara Bouley, "Long-Term Persistence of Donor-Derived Del (20q): A Case Report and Literature Review."

Sheridan -- Quinton Brooks, "Financial Toxicity Experienced by Cancer Patients with Limited English Proficiency."

Story -- Burns, "Preventing Hemorrhage-Induced Death in Fremont County, Wyoming Through Stop the Bleed Community Education."

Worland -- Chantelle Barr, "Improving the Screening and Management of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) Among the Elderly in Thermopolis, WY."

About Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program

Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program is a partnership between the University of Wyoming and the University of Washington School of Medicine. WWAMI Medical Education reserves 20 seats each year for qualified Wyoming residents. Students accepted to the program spend 18 months on the University of Wyoming campus. Students spend the third and fourth years at selected clinical sites throughout the WWAMI region.

About the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences

UW's College of Health Sciences trains health and wellness professionals and researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, speech-language pathology, social work, kinesiology, public health, health administration and disability studies. The college also oversees residency and fellowship programs in Casper and Cheyenne, as well as operating a speech/hearing clinic in Laramie and primary care clinics in Laramie, Casper and Cheyenne.

With more than 1,600 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, the college is dedicated to training the health and wellness workforce of Wyoming and conducting high-quality research and community engagement, with a particular focus on rural and frontier populations.