Samaritan Regional Scholarly Symposium Is a Success June 5, 2024 Four presentations were recognized for top honors during the Samaritan Regional Scholarly Symposium recently held at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. This seventh annual symposium showcased poster presentations of 30 quality improvement and empirical research projects that were recently completed by Samaritan Health Services residents, as well as College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific – Northwest and Oregon State University Students. First place honors went to a presentation by Meghan Wood, DO, MsED and Douglas Thayer, MD titled, “Implementation of bracing to family medicine resident clinic.” The study indicated that SHS residents became more confident in diagnosing and explaining how to use braces for musculoskeletal disorders after an educational session about bracing techniques. In second place was Carson Mowrer, Zoe Herrera, MPH and Paulina Kaiser, MPH, PhD. They shared, “Analysis of physical therapy in primary care pilot program.” This project demonstrated that a warm handoff from providers to a physical therapist embedded in the primary care setting improved outcomes and the use of health care services for SHS patients with musculoskeletal complaints. This year there was a tie for third place. The team of Jenna Chamness, PharmD; Jade Bryant, PharmD, BCPS; Jacqueline Joss, PharmD; Atefeh Sharif, PharmD; Katelynn Tran, PharmD, BCPS and Zoe Herrera, MPH shared, “Assessment of DPD pharmacogenomic testing in fluorouracil and capecitabine therapy.” Their display provided rates of adverse events and genetic testing for dihydropyridine dehydrogenase, or PD testing for SHS oncology patients who received fluorouracil or capecitabine chemotherapy and suggested that DPD genetic testing could be beneficial for guiding therapy. The other third-place winning entry went to Steve Collins, DO; Julie Davidson, DO; Aleksander Hansen, DO; Tyler Earley, DO; Jeremy Warner, DO and Zoe Herrera, MPH for “Rhyme or reason: correlation of inpatient nuclear cardiac perfusion studies and coronary angiography.” This project evaluated the ability of stress tests to accurately identify obstructive coronary artery disease among hospitalized SHS patients. Stress tests were positive in 85% of patients with obstructive coronary artery disease. Residents from Family Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Orthopedic Surgery, Pharmacy, Sports Physical Therapy, Psychiatry and Psychology residency and internship programs participated in the event. These projects represent critical insight into our health care system and provide knowledge about processes and approaches that could help improve patient care. The symposium also featured a research talk titled, “Advances in Collaborative Research Between OSU and SHS: Insights Into How Exercise and SGLT2 Inhibitors Impact Muscle Metabolism” by Matt Robinson, assistant professor of Kinesiology in the College of Health at OSU and “Separating oneself from substance use: Development of a novel intervention technique to prevent drinking and cannabis using identity among college students,” by Andy Hertel, research scientist II in the Research Development Office at SHS. For a list of “symposium winners,” access to PDFs of all of the posters and information about research at SHS, please visit the SHS Research Development Office site.
