Dr. Jennifer Bennett
Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellow
2020 -2021
Dr. Jennifer Bennett, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Brody School of Medicine -- where she completed a combined residency in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine -- is this year's ECU Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellow.
The ECU Emergency Medicine Simulation Fellowship is a year-long fellowship with the goal of developing knowledge and skills in simulation-based learning, simulation technologies, curriculum design and implementation, interprofessional education, mobile simulation, simulation education research and in the leadership, administration and operations of a clinical simulation program. The program also includes coursework to complete the Graduate Certificate in Education Healthcare Professions.
As the simulation fellow, Dr. Bennett develops and implements educational strategies for medical students, medical residents and physician assistants. Specifically, she has been involved in the Doctoring and Clinical Application courses for the second year BSOM medical students.
Bennett works primarily in the Brody School of Medicine Clinical Simulation Center, but also staffs the Vidant Medical Center emergency department as an attending physician supervising emergency medicine, internal medicine and family medicine residents on their emergency medicine rotations. She has also provided educational program support for a local community hospital using our mobile Healthcare Simulation Unit and for local military units using the Osprey military transport simulator. Dr. Bennett has facilitated learning sessions for Pitt County Community College nursing students, respiratory students, nurses and pharmacy residents.
"As a mid-career physician, I felt that it was important to broaden my skills and find a compatible niche of interest. The simulation fellowship presented the great opportunity to improve my skills as an educator and to learn new skills with the Department of Adult Education."
"With the additional training in simulation education, I also wanted to increase my contributions to the specialty of emergency medicine, the patients I care for and the students I teach. I enjoy the interaction of teaching, the creativity of the process and the impact we make."
Dr. Bennett is also enrolled in the Master of Arts degree program in Adult Education through the Department of Education at ECU. She and her husband enjoy working out, running, reading and spoiling their three cats.
Dr. Bennett facilitates the M2 Clinical Applications simulation, guiding the students through assessment of a critically-ill patient in a simulated emergency room situation.
The 11th Annual SNMA Conference gathers middle school, high school, and undergraduate students interested in careers in medicine. This year’s conference was held virtually. The BSOM Simulation Program was a featured session in which medical students assessed a possible COVID-19 patient. The scenario was broadcast live via WebEx for participants, who could ask questions in real time.
The Simulation Program is currently accepting applications for next years fellowship. Please reach out to gilbirdr@ecu.edu for more information.
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Music Therapy and Public Health Faculty Collaborate on CFAC Award Project
Dr. Adrienne Steiner, assistant professor of music therapy, and Dr. Rashmita Basu, assistant professor in the department of Public Health, have been awarded a CFAC grant to conduct a research project investigating the effects of a music-based wellness workshop. The grant is awarded from July 2020-April 30, 2021. Data collection began in October and will run through March.
Dr. Steiner, the principal investigator, is responsible for recruitment, data collection and data compilation. The data collection takes place during a single workshop session during which time participants experience a music-based intervention and a psychoeducation discussion on how to use elements from the session. Steiner collects pre and post workshop measurements, conducts the music-based relaxation intervention and follows up with participants two weeks following their participation. Dr. Basu will analyze data, interpret results and write manuscripts in collaboration with Steiner.
Dr. Steiner has been interested in informal caregivers' biopsychosocial needs since she was a master's student and explains her motivation for this project:
"Overall, the drive to pursue this is fueled by my personal experience being a primary caregiver for four years and the impact it had on my health. From that experience, I realized I am in a field that can really address the needs of caregivers, and I want to empower caregivers with tools and resources -- especially those that are music-based."
The intervention workshop session involves one-time participation and occurs face-to-face or virtually through a video conferencing platform. The workshop combines research-based elements of music that assist in eliciting a relaxation response and a spoken meditation script that combines elements of breathing, imagery, mindfulness (non-judgmental awareness, body awareness) and a loving-kindness based meditation using affirmative mantras.
Following, a psychoeducational discussion is facilitated where participants learn about the elements used in the intervention and various adaptations that they can use at home while experiencing stress and caregiver-related complexities. Participants are provided with an MP3 or CD recording to use how they like over two weeks and follow-up measures are collection.
Dr. Basu feels that she and Dr. Steiner have complementary interests that will ensure the success of this project. She shares her interest in the research:
"I have been involved in caregiving research since my doctoral work and very passionate about improving lives of people living with chronic illness and their family caregivers."
"While I have been involved in various interventions in the healthcare settings that enhance quality of lives of family caregivers, I became more interested in music therapy-based intervention for both family caregivers and their care recipients."
Click here to watch a guest lecture by Dr. Steiner on aging from a wellness-based approach through the assistance of music. Use password iBu2Dxp@
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The Teachers of Quality Academy Cohort Celebrates Program Completion
The recognition ceremony for the fourth cohort of Teachers of Quality Academy (TQA) scholars was held on September 24, 2020 virtually via Zoom. The event recognized 35 program participants from ECU and Vidant Health who completed the year-long, longitudinal professional development program.
The cohort is a mix of ECU/BSOM faculty, ECUP nursing staff and Vidant Health physicians, nurses, and administrators.
This cohort faced many challenges -- from Hurricane Dorian necessitating cancellation of their welcome reception to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a transition to virtual delivery. Furthermore, all of the participants are health professionals serving on the front lines of the pandemic. Nonetheless, their commitment to the program and completion of their quality projects did not waver.
We are immensely proud of this cohort and their accomplishments despite the adversity they faced. We have trained another 35 change agents who will utilize their knowledge and skills to improve the health of patients and our community.
Teachers of Quality Academy Director Dr. Timothy Reader
“I am so impressed with the scale and reach of the impact of the TQA projects. If you consider the number of patients and families impacted, it just gives me a great feeling of all that we have accomplished together."
"Participants this year will save lives, reduce morbidity and improve the patient experience.”
For a list of TQA 4.0 Quality Improvement Projects and Participants, click here.
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BSOM Federal Grants
At The Brody School of Medicine September full faculty meeting, Dr. Russ Price announced the federal grants which had been awarded in the past six months.
Dr. Jessica Ellis, assistant professor in the department of physiology and the East Carolina diabetes and obesity institute, has received an NIH RO1 research grant proposal: “Determining the biological effect of mitochondrial acyl toxicity.” The NIH award is a 5-year grant for an expected total of $2,699,683 to support Dr. Jessica Ellis' laboratory research.
Ellis remarks: “Although consumption of high-fat diets and the obesity epidemic have revealed that disruptions in fat metabolism are, in part, mechanistic drivers of metabolic disease, it is unclear which metabolites and metabolic processes are the major contributors.
Results from the proposed work will determine the threat that acylcarnitines pose to cellular health, from which therapeutic strategies to limit acylcarnitine accumulation can be implemented.
Broadly, the Ellis Lab is focused on understanding the regulation and biological consequences of cellular fatty acid flux under both basal and metabolically stressed conditions. We integrate biochemical, metabolic, and molecular biology in experimental models including cell culture and mouse models. Our goal is to understand how the regulation of fatty acid metabolism maintains health in order to prevent or reverse metabolic disease.Dr. Jessica Ellis will be conducting this research alongside co-Investigators Dr. Kelsey Fisher-Wellman, Dr. Darrell Neufer, and Dr. Espen Spangenburg from the Department of Physiology and the East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute.
Dr. Srinivas Sriramula, assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and toxicology, has received the Notice of Award from the NIH for his RO1 research grant proposal “Neuroimmune Mechanisms of Kinin B1 Receptor in Hypertension." The NIH awarded this 5-year grant for an expected total of $1,843,750 to support Sriramula's laboratory research.
Sriramula notes: "Hypertension remains a global health concern despite significant advancements in its treatment in recent years. My research project addresses a highly novel role for kinin B1R signaling in neuro-immune interactions of blood pressure regulation that will advance our fundamental understanding of neurogenic hypertension and provide insights for developing novel therapeutics in the future for the treatment of hypertension."
Dr. Sriramula's research is primarily focused on understanding the bidirectional communication between the central nervous system and the immune system in regulation of blood pressure. His research efforts will continue the search for neural control mechanism of hypertension. Dr. Sriramula will be conducting this research alongside two co- investigators: Dr. Abdel A. Abdel-Rahman, department of pharmacology and toxicology and Dr. Akshaya K. Meher, department of microbiology and immunology.
Dr. Espen Spangenburg, PdD, associate professor of East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute, has received an R61 Federal Award grant from the National Institutes of Health to research skeletal muscle function.
"We have identified a skeletal muscle that can work for short periods of time without oxygen, which defies our dogmatic understanding of tissue function in mammals. The goal of the grant is define the mechanism the identified muscle uses to function without oxygen and determine if the mechanism can be used to protect other tissue from an ischemic insult."
Dr. Spangenburg will be conducting his research alongside Dr. Joseph McClung, Dr. Kelsey Fisher-Wellman and Dr. P. D. Neufer, Aa well as Dr. Michael Hogan and Dr. Leo Nogueira from the University of California at San Diego.
Dr. Brandon Garcia, assistant professor in the department of microbiology and immunology, has received an RO1 research grant for his “Virulence Mechanisms of Multifunctional Borrelial Proteins" research laboratory. Dr. Garcia's funding began this past spring and will continue extensively throughout 2025.
"Bacteria belonging to the Borrelia genus include Borrelia burgdorferi, which is an infectious tick-borne spirochete that causes nearly 300,000 cases of Lyme disease in the United States annually. Borrelia are also known to cause other serious vector-borne human illnesses including relapsing fever and Borrelia miyamotoi disease."
"In this project we will use structural, biochemical, and microbiological approaches to study a group of evolutionarily-related, multifunctional, borrelial lipoproteins with the goal of understanding their role in promoting bacterial survival and persistence in immunocompetent hosts.”
Brody Women of Distinction Award
Dr. Betsy Tuttle- Newhall, MD chair of the department of of surgery at BSOM has recently been awarded ECU Women and Gender Office's Women of Distinction Award. Dr. Newhall was selected along 6 other ECU female faculty members.
The awards are given every two years and recognize outstanding contributions by five individuals who identify as women within ECU or who are associated with the ECU in surrounding eastern North Carolina communities. Nominees for the awards may include current and past ECU faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumnae who serve as community leaders.
The awards recognize individuals who identify as women who have:
Distinguished themselves in academic work, career, leadership, public service, or any combination thereof through commitment, determination, empowerment and generosity of spirit and time;
Contributed to the personal growth and success of others, especially women, through education, research, or public or volunteer service, beyond their expected job responsibilities; and
Whose achievements create positive social change, increase equality and fairness for all and build community.
The Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony met virtually on September 29th to officially announce this year's recipients.
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OFD BSOM Faculty Spotlight
Credits:
Photo credits: Cover photo and Sim Lab photos: Becky Gilbird; Dr. Steiner photo: Adrienne Steiner; TQA-4 photo: Jenna Garris; Dr. Sriramula photo: Srinivas Sriramula; All other photos courtesy of and used with permission by ECU Photos