A cohort of first-year medical students were matched with four faculty mentors at the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine for the 2024 Shapiro Summer Research Program.
Since 2002, the Shapiro Summer Research Program has provided opportunities for UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) students to participate in eight- to 10-week research projects in the summer between their first and second years of medical school. Students are paired with UW–Madison faculty mentors who propose a wide range of hypothesis-driven projects in basic science, clinical, translational, health services, population/public health, or global health research. Funding for the program comes from the Herman and Gwendolyn Shapiro Foundation with additional support from the department and investigator grants.
About 125 SMPH students will participate in the Shapiro Summer Research Program this year, which is more than 70% of eligible students.
Below is a list of students who will conduct research with the Department of Emergency Medicine this summer, their faculty mentors, and the titles of their research projects:
| Project title: Child Sex Trafficking Screening Trends: The Changing Environment of Online Exploitation and Screening Responses Shapiro Scholar: Hanna Jens Mentor: Allie Hurst, MD, MS, assistant professor of emergency medicine, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Project aim: Compare survey responses from our dataset of screened at-risk adolescents to screening responses prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will provide experience and education in the area of child sex trafficking, data processing and review, clinical science manuscript writing, and presenting analysis at the local and possibly national level. |
| Project title: Characterizing Swallow Function of Older Adults in the Emergency Department Shapiro Scholar: Dominick Battistini Mentor: Michael Pulia, MD, PhD, associate professor of emergency medicine Project aim: Characterize swallow function in a cohort of older adults with a broad variety of both respiratory and non-respiratory acute medical conditions, and evaluate the opportunity to evaluate the contribution of comorbidities, including frailty and malnutrition, as it relates to the presence and severity of dysphagia in this high-risk population. |
| Project title: Assessing Emergency Care Needs of an Indigenous Community in Rural Guatemala Shapiro Scholar: Grace Ried Mentor: Jessica Schmidt, MD, MPH, associate professor of emergency medicine Project aim: Perform a qualitative assessment of key stakeholder perceptions of the burden, capacity, and barriers associated with acute and emergency care in rural Guatemala. |
| Project title: Evaluation of Vasopressor Usage in HEMS Shapiro Scholar: Arianna Romero Mentor: Craig Tschautscher, MD, MS, assistant professor of emergency medicine, Division of Prehospital Medicine Project aim: Evaluate patients on vasopressors transported by UW Med Flight over a two-year period to determine if the vasopressor agents and dose selected by critical care transport teams were continued out through the first 24 hours of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stay. |