[MUSIC] Well, apart from being very inquisitive as a young child, and having microscopes and chemistry sets. When I was finishing my undergraduate degree in pharmacology in Edinburgh, I did a research project with an Anaesthesiology Department. And looked at what influence anaesthesia had on people breathing, before and after surgery. And it was a really short project, it lasted for two months, but we actually got some really good results published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. So that really, kind of, was a light bulb moment for me, that research that you could get it that far in such a short period of time. So that was kind of when I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in that area, and that's why I went back to school to get my PhD. So I have what I would consider to be an alternative career path right now. So my current career path is totally different from what I started out doing 22 years ago. So after I finished my PhD, I came to Rochester to pursue a research career in Vascular Biology, and that was in 1999. And continued on with that area of research, until just about three years ago, was kind of when I decided that I wanted maybe to switch careers, or research areas, and target areas. Partly because I went back to school, and got a graduate certificate in LGBT Health Policy and Practice. And during that course, a lot of information was shared on large amounts of trauma that impacted LGBT populations. And also with HIV, how it disproportionately affected these populations. So I kind of started to move my research career away from the vascular biology area, and into HIV, and trauma, and LGBT populations. So to describe what my research is in layperson's terms, I have a few different areas of research. Probably the one that's the biggest component is, I'm a researcher around HIV, and those who are at risk from contracting HIV. And I'm funded by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network to conduct a study, and it's using an e-screen tool to enroll people into clinical trials that look at HIV prevention studies. So my current research is a small part of a bigger research study, which is being carried out at 19 centers in the United States. And it's called the AMP Study, which is Antibody Mediated Prevention, and it's a novel way of looking for an HIV vaccine. So one of the problems in studies like that is targeting those who are greatest risk from contracting HIV, and getting them into the study. And quite often those are young black men who have sex with men, and transgender individuals. And looking at data and information on those populations, our hypothesis is that these individuals, being in a research study is not one of their top priorities. So really what's important to them, they may have all their needs, such as legal needs, food, clothing, housing, mental health needs. So we have developed an online tool that allows people, it's almost like a survey on an iPad. So people will fill out a questionnaire, and it will answer what their basic needs are. And it uses branching logic, so they will only be asked questions that follow a natural progression, so we don't have redundant questions. But what's really nice about this, is at the end of this, they get a personalized printout referral of local community resources, that can help address these needs. So we're hoping, by building this relationship with individuals, is that we help them address their primary needs. And that even with relationship building, they may become more interested in participating in a trial. Also if they do enroll in this larger AMP study, we want to see if administering this survey while they are in the study, it helps people [COUGH] excuse me, retain in the study. So we'll worry about attrition, and people dropping out of studies, so we're hoping that by continually, because people's needs change naturally over time. By re-administering this survey over time, that we will help keep them in the study, and get the results we need. Another study I have with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network as well is, looking at why people who are qualified for a study don't enroll, and also why they drop out of a study, so those two tie nicely together. And my other study that I'm involved in as co-investigator, it's PCORI Award, and the name of the application is HEAL, so it's Healing through Education, Advocacy and Law. And we recently opened a clinic at the hospital, and it's a medical legal partnership, and what it allows us to do is address the needs of individuals who are victims of interpersonal violence. So we have a complete set of services at the hospital, we think we're one of the first of its kind in the nation. That someone who is an employee of the university, anyone who's a patient or also from the community, they can come in to us and we use the same screening tool that we used in our other studies. But we also have [COUGH] domestic violence advocates there who can help do safety planning, and we also are unique in that we can help with orders of protection. And individuals, sometimes if they're an inpatient, they don't have to directly to the court, we can do that via Skype. So we're also looking at, this is a study to see if addressing these social determinants helps people's safety, and less likely to go back into that relationship. So there are many definitions of translational research. And to me, translational research is, our definition of it is, working to convert research knowledge into practical applications to improve population health. So that's the ultimate goal of this is, the overall well being and improvement of population health, be it through a reduction in disease, or an improvement of wellness. [MUSIC]
