Nearly one hundred people came together to get the inside scoop on the latest health research explorations and team up with the presenters to grow in science communication skills at Chicago’s MATTER in the Merchandise Mart on May 23, 2024.
Six researchers from across Chicagoland institutions presented their big ideas and passion projects to the general public at a special Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) Grand Rounds event that was a culmination of science communications training on how to connect with a non-scientific audience. Nearly 90 percent of U.S. adults don’t have the health literacy necessary to navigate the health care system, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy, making communications skills critical to building trust and helping people understand their health needs.
“Science communication and storytelling skills are powerful tools that allow you to connect with people from any background,” said Sara Serritella, ITM Director of Communication who led the training and gave the researchers an inside look into the art of connection from her work as a private detective. “It was magical to see the public’s eyes light up and engage with the researchers in ways that wouldn’t be possible without those tools.”
The series of TED-style Talks challenged the presenters to share their work in just eight minutes and provided the audience with an opportunity to share the gift of feedback for what worked well and anything that could be optimized. The evening ended with an audience vote on the most engaging scientific talks and awarding two presenters with trophies.
ITM-UChicago’s Faith Abodunrin, MD, came in first place for her presentation on bone marrow transplants for treatment of a blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia. She shocked the audience with a statistic that on one bone marrow donor registry website, Black patients have less than a 30% chance of getting a matched donor, compared to White patients, who have a nearly 80% chance. She said she plans to recruit donors of all backgrounds across Chicago college campuses to make things like registries more efficient.
Following Abodunrin’s talk, two audience members shared touching stories from their personal health journeys. Luna Bitar, student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shared that she underwent a bone marrow transplant, and her brother was her match. Another audience member said she was her brother’s donor.
Austin Wesevich, MD, from ITM-UChicago came in second place. His research focused on giving patients what they value when it comes to breast cancer and sickle cell care. A short 15 seconds into his presentation, a timer on his phone went off. That 15 seconds symbolized the average time it takes a doctor to interrupts a new patient. Wesevich gave the audience tips for how to get the most out of their short doctors’ appointments: Come with a list of top three things you want to talk about with your doctor, and pick one that’s most important, in case you can’t discuss all three.
UChicago’s Lorraine Canham, MD, and Lindsay Schwartz, MD, MS, from UChicago, Lajja Desai, MD, from Northwestern’s Lajja Desai, MD, and Loyola’s Samie Tootoni, PhD, also took the stage.
Schwartz’ research focused on smoking and vaping in young cancer survivors. One-third of the 700,000 cancer survivors in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, and another third vape. Those are higher rates than in young people who’ve never had a cancer diagnosis. Schwartz has teamed up with cancer survivors to create a two-way text messaging program that helps these young patients deal with stress management and hopefully discourage them from using nicotine.
Desai presented on using MRIs to help children with pediatric heart disease. She shared a heartbreaking story of one of her pediatric patients who passed away just days ago.
Tootoni proposed that artificial intelligence (AI) can help doctors make important patient-care decisions when treating a specific type of hospital-acquired infection called an MRSA staph infection. He shared a story of an infected patient who needed eighteen surgeries and had both legs amputated below the knee.
“Even the best doctors may miss some important details when they are under pressure,” he said. His compared decision-making between doctors and AI, and showed that AI was right 67% of the time, while humans were right 50% of the time.
The audience and researchers got to mingle and enjoy a reception following the talks and voting.
“My favorite part about the event was probably hearing medical professionals talk about what they work on every day in regular terms,” said one audience member. Another said she impressed by the spirit of collaboration and the audience and researchers being “able to partake in this wonderful event.”
The event was a partnership between ITM and Chicagoland Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Programs partners Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) and the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC CCTS). It was fueled by support from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
About the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM)
The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) helps you live your best life by making research breakthroughs happen and getting those discoveries into the real world to improve your health as soon as possible.
The ITM is a partnership between the University of Chicago and Rush in collaboration with Advocate Aurora Health Care, Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), Loyola University Chicago, and Endeavor Health that’s fueled by about $51 million in grants from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program.
The ITM is part of a network of more than 50 CTSA Program-supported hubs across the country working to slash the time it takes to develop and share new treatments and health approaches. We work with you and for you to make participating in health research easy, so that together we improve health care for all.
ITM Contact: Sara Serritella, Director of ITM Communications, serritella@uchicago.edu
This project is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that supports the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) through Grant Number UL1TR002389.