2023 News and Events

December

STRIDES Team Featured on WKYC Good Company 

Jasmine Johnson, MSN, RN, and Renae Sabella, RDN, LD, recently joined the program to talk about the importance of healthy eating during the holiday season. They also promoted MetroHealth's STRIDES program, a one-year, individually tailored program that helps people with prediabetes lower their risk of developing diabetes or even prevent diabetes altogether.

Watch the presentation

 

Dr. Douglas Gunzler Appointed to Serve on Ohio Parkinson’s Disease Registry Advisory Committee 

Douglas Gunzler, PhD was appointed to serve on Ohio Parkinson’s Disease Registry Advisory Committee (PDRAC) under the role of Researcher. His appointment was made in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 3701.252, which provides for an advisory committee to assist the Ohio Department of Health in the development and implementation of the Ohio Parkinson’s Disease Registry and to advise the director of health on maintaining and improving the registry. The committee will meet at least biannually. 

 

November

Dr. Eileen Seeholzer publishes on educating medical students on obesity as a preclinical elective 

Dr. Eileen Seeholzer and team had their research published in the International Journal of Obesity. Main findings present a feasible model for providing medical students with meaningful experiences and education related to obesity, including elective reflection structure and evaluation method. 

Read the full article

 

Newly Published Editorial Urges Actions Towards Eliminating Pulmonary Health Disparities by Addressing Social Determinants of Health

Adam Perzynski and team were recently published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society for their editorial titled, Place and Pulmonary Health Inequality.

The publication focuses on contextualizing health disparities in pulmonary health while also pushing investigators and clinical leaders towards actions like large-scale observational studies, programming, and policy changes that act on the social determinants of health.

Read publication

 

September

The Population Health and Equity Research Institute (PHERI) announces two MetroHealth faculty researchers for the 2023 Pilot Grant Award.

The Pilot Grant Program provides one year of seed funding for MetroHealth faculty investigators to conduct research projects in population health.

Sarah Sweeney, MD

"A Pilot Study to Identify Key Research Priorities and Areas of Inquiry for the Impacts of Gun Violence on Survivors and Families – The “Centering Families and Survivors Project”

Developed collaboratively between Dr. Sarah Sweeney, a MetroHealth Family Physician, The Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, the MetroHealth Trauma Recovery center and directly impacted community members, this interview-based project aims to center survivors and families who are directly impacted by gun violence. It brings focus to the devastating and broad range of impacts that the ongoing epidemic of gun violence has on a growing proportion of MetroHealth patients and the NEO community.

The information gained from this pilot study will help to bolster the care provided to families and survivors in both the immediate and long-term aftermath of firearm injuries and deaths and to develop research and program priorities that center this population. This project also aims to provide a practical set of resources and a framework for conducting research with survivors and family members in a way that provides rather than extracts resources.

Dr. Sweeney would like to thank the dedicated collaboration of Ms. Myesha Watkins and Ms. Mar’Yum Patterson of the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, Ms. Shanell Harris of the MH Trauma Recovery Center, Faith leader Dr. Tony Minor and community partner Ms. Kimberley King."

Shahdi Malakooti MD

Role of Vitamin D in Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) include emergence, persistence, and worsening of neuropsychiatric and cognitive deficits. In the general population, Vitamin D deficiency correlates with neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric disease. In addition, several social determinants of health associate with Vitamin D deficiency.

This project will fill a critical knowledge gap through understanding the relative contribution of disparities in Vitamin D status to neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms of post-COVID syndrome and in identifying barriers perpetuated by existing infrastructure, aligning directly with the MetroHealth mission to develop a healthier community and promote accountability and racial equity.

 

March

CHEEER Director Receives 5 year NIH Grant to Increase Diversity in Scientific Workforce

Dr. Daryl Thornton, Director of the Center for Health Equity, Engagement, Education, and Research (CHEEER) and Director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and Dr. Ronald Hickman, Associate Dean for Research at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing were awarded a 5-year, $540,000 R25 Research Education Grant from NIH to increase the diversity of the scientific workforce.

Entitled “An Intensive Summer Education Program in Translational Research for Underrepresented Students (INSPIRE-US)”, the grant complements the 7-year Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC) grant recently awarded to Case Western Reserve University.

The INSPIRE-US program will support 25 undergraduate students from 9 historically Black colleges and universities to spend 10 weeks at Case and its affiliated teaching hospitals including MetroHealth where they will receive hands on research experiences in a lab under the direction of a mentor, training in research methods, and professional career coaching.

 

February

Questions of Faith: Suicidality Among Sexual Minority Adolescents & Young Adults 

Dr. Susan De Luca gave a presentation for CWRU’s Special Topics in Social Justice and Public Health around her work with LGBQ adolescents and how religious affiliation and levels of religiosity are related to suicidal ideation and attempts this population. 

Religion is a protective factor for suicide, yet Dr. De Luca and her team’s research finds repeatedly that it does not function as such for sexual minorities.  Her research also found that if these same adolescents are part of an affirming religious affiliation, they enjoy the same protective factors as heterosexual and cisgender adolescents.

View the entire talk

 

Food Insecurity Trajectories in the US During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Doug Gunzler and Adam Perzynski’s work with Dr. Jin Kim-Mozeleski was recently featured in the CWRU Daily. Their publication in Preventing Chronic Disease looked at the trajectory of food insecurity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team found food insecurity was highly variable with one-third of the US population experiencing some form of food insecurity risk. Check out the article in the daily here: CWRU Daily or the full publication here: Food Insecurity Trajectories

 

January

Redlining Article in Cleveland Scene Magazine

Congratulations to Dr. Adam Perzynski and Dr. Kristen Berg for their published work on Redlining being featured in Cleveland Scene Magazine in an article titled Case Western Reserve Study Confirms Racism as ‘Overriding Factor’ in Redlining Neighborhoods. The Scene article highlights research from Adam and Kristen’s manuscript in the Du Bois Review and explains how Black residents were 40 times more likely to be redlined in the 1930s.

“When we look at redlining, we have to think about the consequences of racist policies,” Perzynski said. “Community gardens are a good thing and managing blood pressure is never a bad idea, but they don’t correct 100 years of discrimination and institutionalized racism.”

“We’ve created these neighborhoods,” said co-author and assistant professor at the school of medicine Kristen Berg. “These are the consequences of deeply intentional policy decisions. There needs to be intentional work, then, to transform neighborhoods and invest in families whose generations have been harmed by redlining.”

Check out the full article from Scene here: CLE Scene Redlining Article
Their work was also featured in the CWRU Daily: CWRU Daily Redlining