DOM Research Day 2024: a celebration of health equity and collaborative science

Dr. Daniel To discusses his research at Research Day 2024.

April 26, 2024, was the 14th University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine (DOM) Research Day.

One of the department’s signature events, Research Day brings together the department’s learners, staff and faculty—and a multitude of outside collaborators—for a celebration of basic, clinical, translational, and health sciences research.

Watch the highlights [Youtube video]:

Spotlight on Health Equity

The theme for Research Day 2024 was health equity, which the National Institutes of Health (NIH) define as “the principle underlying the continual process of assuring all individuals or populations have optimal opportunities to attain the best health possible.”

Dr. Fernando Holguin delivers the 2024 Research Day Grand Rounds

Much of the day’s program addressed the topic, starting with a Grand Rounds presentation [Youtube video], “Respiratory Health Disparities: Root Causes and Opportunities for Action,” by Fernando Holguin, MD, MPH, professor and associate vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (in photo at right).

“Health equity was chosen as this year’s cross-cutting theme because, as Dr. Holguin’s Grand Rounds talk illustrates, systemic biases are ingrained in the science and practice of medicine in a variety of ways,” said Research Day Event Chair Megan Piper, PhD, UW Chair for Tobacco Research and Intervention Research Professor, General Internal Medicine.

“It is important that we all take a step back and interrogate our assumptions and investigate how these assumptions may perpetuate inequities at all levels of scientific inquiry.”

Shobhina Chheda, MD, MPH, professor, General Internal Medicine, poses a question to Dr. Holguin during Grand Rounds.
Shobhina Chheda, MD, MPH, professor, General Internal Medicine, poses a question to Dr. Holguin during Grand Rounds.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions throughout the morning, led by subject-matter experts in the DOM and across campus, allowed attendees to explore different ideas that may enhance their research efforts, such as:

•    Straight Talk with the IRB
•    Engaging Communities in Research
•    Keys to Collaboration
•    Leadership Skills
•    Telling the Story
•    Research Through a Health Equity Lens from Basic to Clinical Science
•    Career Development (led by Dr. Holguin)
•    Data Visualization

Attendees at the “Telling the Story” breakout session, in which leading campus communicators provided advice for researchers looking to share the story of their work with a wider audience.

Awards and Recognition

Attendees also had several hours to peruse nearly 150 posters highlighting the work done by department researchers and their collaborators.

Fourteen of the posters were honored in four categories: basic science, clinical, translational and health services/health equity. The lead researchers on each received a ribbon and funds for professional development and research expenses.

A red, white and black infographic listing some numbers from Research Day: 500 attendees, 156 abstract submissions, 149 posters, 42 speakers, and 37 poster session judges.

In the afternoon, the lead researchers of the posters with the highest-scoring abstracts presented their research to the entire community:

  • Zach Spears, BS, medical student, UW School of Medicine and Public Health - "Mechanistic Insights into Sphingomyelinase-Mediated Pathways in Cardiomyocytes: From Calcium Signaling Disruption to ROS Production”
  • Erika Heninger, PhD, scientist III, Hematology, Medical Oncology, and Palliative Care - "Differential Patterns of Immune Infiltration in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment Associate with Therapeutic Response in Primary Prostate Cancer Following Chemohormonal Therapy"
  • Jessa Engelken, MPH, RDN, and Katrina Kennedy MS, RDN, both clinical nutritionists, Nephrology - "Pre-transplant malnutrition, particularly with muscle depletion is associated with adverse outcomes after kidney transplantation”
  • David Sterken, MD, assistant clinical professor, Hospital Medicine - "Destigmatizing Clinical Documentation Using Spell Check"

View the complete list of event honorees [PDF].

DOM faculty at the poster session, left to right: Daniel Rosenberg, MD, assistant professor, Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Trevor McKown, MD, assistant professor, Rheumatology; Tripti Singh, MBBS, associate professor, Nephrology; and Lindsay Taylor, MD, MS, assistant professor, Infectious Disease.
DOM faculty at the poster session, left to right: Daniel Rosenberg, MD, assistant professor, Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Trevor McKown, MD, assistant professor, Rheumatology; Tripti Singh, MBBS, associate professor, Nephrology; and Lindsay Taylor, MD, MS, assistant professor, Infectious Disease.
Margo Heston, BS, a graduate student researcher with the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, receives one of the poster session awards for clinical research from Department Chair Lynn Schnapp, on right.
Margo Heston, BS, a graduate student researcher with the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, receives one of the poster session awards for clinical research from Department Chair Lynn Schnapp, on right.
Faculty researchers from the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism accept the Leader of the Pack award on behalf of their division. This travelling award is given to the DOM division with the greatest number of Research Day abstract submissions weighted by that division’s total number of faculty. Left to right: Michelle Kimple, PhD, associate professor; Dawn Davis, MD, PhD, professor; Dudley Lamming, PhD, associate professor and department vice chair for biomedical research; and Andrea Galmozzi, PhD, assistant professor.

Banner: Daniel To, MD, PG-3, internal medicine residency, on left, walks through his research poster with an onlooker at the 2024 DOM Research Day poster session.

All photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine

Matt Mallum, MFA