All posts by Kelly Edwards

UMKC Medical Students Celebrate Match Day

-PRN, Student Affairs, , , , ,
Stories of an untraditional medical student and two siblings who fulfilled their dream
UMKC medical students and siblings Sumiya and Mozammil Alam celebrated MatchDay with family and friends.

Tears flowed down his cheeks as UMKC medical student Keith Loftin embraced his wife on Match Day inside the UMKC Student Union, holding a letter in his hands that spelled out the next four years of their lives. His misty-eyed parents looked on as well as he read the news.

Loftin had matched in a residency position at Samaritan Health Services in Corvallis, Oregon, where he will enter his preferred specialty of psychiatry.

Match Day 2023 Results

“It’s amazing to be here with all these people who have supported me, all the people who care about me,” Loftin said. “It’s all kind of surreal right now.”

Loftin was one of the 112 members of the UMKC School of Medicine class of 2023 that participated this year’s National Resident Matching Program. Like many in the class, he was elated at receiving his first choice of residency positions.

“I found psychiatry and realized how much I connected with it and how much I loved working with my patients and decided this is where I need to be,” Loftin said. “It felt like this is where I belonged.”

His journey to becoming a physician, however, took a different path than the rest of his classmates, most of whom are half his age.

Keith Loftin and his family
UMKC medical student Keith Loftin celebrated his match in psychiatry with his wife and children.

Prior to moving with his wife and two children to Kansas City and entering medical school, Loftin was a high school science teacher in Jefferson City, Missouri. Before that, he spent nearly seven years in the Army working on Chinook helicopters, then returned to school to earn a master’s degree in education. All the while, Loftin, who earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and science at the University of Missouri before joining the Army, said he harbored a hidden desire to become a doctor.

“I was teaching a class for high school students who wanted to enter health care and they kept asking me why I hadn’t gone to medical school,” he said. “After about the 100th conversation my wife and I had about it, she finally said you know what you need to do and that started the ball rolling.”

With the backing of his wife, and while still teaching his high school classes, Loftin began the tedious process of studying for the MCAT exam and preparing to become a full-time student again for the first time in nearly 17 years.

“Medical school was a challenge, but doable,” he said. “I faced a lot of personal challenges.”

During his time as a medical student, Loftin underwent multiple surgeries for back injuries from his time in the Army and helped his wife through the loss of her mother. His efforts paid off on Friday. Loftin applied for residency positions in psychiatry at hospitals across the country from Oregon to Florida, knowing the day would come when he would have to move his wife, a 17-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son again.

“It’s a little tough,” he said. “It’s not so bad for me. I moved six times to different duty stations when I was in the Army. It’s going to have its challenges, moving my family, but I know my son is excited about it.”

Brother and sister

While Loftin celebrated with his family, Mozammil and Sumaiya Alam were enjoying the day with family and friends as well. The brother and sister from Kansas City, Missouri, had the unique experience of going through Match together.

Mozammil received his desired match in neurology and will be headed to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. Sumaiya matched in internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.

“I’m going to Atlanta,” Sumaiya screamed. “ I started crying before I even opened my envelope. This is what I was dreaming.”

Mozammil was sharing a similar excitement.

“There is so much joy right now,” he said. “We both got the matches we wanted.”

While the two were able to lean on each other for support throughout medical school, they were also able to turn for advice about the residency process to their brother, Mobashshir Alam, a 2018 graduate of the UMKC School of Medicine and now a gastroenterology fellow at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

“He was really helpful in guiding us through the match process,” Sumaiya said.

Mozammil said having his sister by his side helped as they have gone through the same highs and lows of medical school together.

“We definitely have relied on each other for multiple things,” he said. “During the interview season we were always there to support each other.”

Nearly half of the UMKC students who matched will be entering residency programs in one of the primary care specialties. Internal medicine drew the largest number of students with 19, followed by family medicine with 11 and pediatrics with nine. A growing number of graduates will also be going into psychiatry, which had 11 matches.

Twenty students will remain in Kansas City to do their residencies at UMKC School of Medicine-sponsored programs. Overall, 33 UMKC grads – about a third – will stay in Missouri for their residency programs.

See the full list of UMKC School of Medicine students who matched in programs across the United States from Honolulu, Hawaii, to New York.

School of Medicine Dean Mary Ann Jackson, M.D., congratulated the class, calling Match Day a defining moment in their journeys.

“The lessons you learned here will carry you through your career,” Jackson said.

Leading advocate for cancer patients selected as School of Medicine Alumni Award recipient

-PRN, Alumni, , ,
Dr. Arif Kamal

Arif Kamal, (M.D. ’05) was recognized as the 2023 UMKC School of Medicine Alumni Award winner during the university’s Alumni Awards ceremony on March 10 at the Plexpod Westport Commons in Kansas City.

The American Cancer Society hired Kamal, the school’s 2019 E. Grey Dimond, M.D., Take Wing Award winner, as its first chief patient officer last December to implement the society’s patient support vision and strategic plan to improve the lives of cancer patients and their families.

Kamal oversees the organization’s cancer support, patient navigation, educational programs, patient lodging solutions, transportation services, contact center and digital patient support offerings. He also handles all aspects of organizational functions that touch cancer patients across 5,000 communities around the globe.

Prior to joining the American Cancer Society, Kamal served for more than 12 years as an oncologist, researcher and innovative leader at Duke University and the Duke Cancer Institute. He is an associate professor of Medicine and Population Health at the Duke University School of Medicine, and recently served as physician quality and outcomes officer at the Duke Cancer Institute.

Kamal is a nationally recognized expert in oncology quality assessment and palliative care. He co-founded Prepped Health, a company that develops innovative technology solutions to educate and engage patients facing a serious illness, such as cancer, and their caregivers. He has several leadership positions within prestigious national professional organizations, has won numerous awards and is a prolific author.

After receiving his medical degree from the UMKC’s six-year combined B.A./M.D. program, he completed his residency and a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic and Duke University. He holds a master’s degree in health science in clinical research from Duke University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.

Kamal lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife and two young children.

The UMKC Alumni Awards ceremony is one of the university’s largest events to support student scholarships. In the last decade, the Alumni Awards event has garnered more than $1 million in scholarships and immediate aid for UMKC students.

 

 

Leader in medical ethics commends School of Medicine

-PRN

The UMKC School of Medicine has long been a leader in instilling professionalism and ethics throughout its teaching environment.

Medical schools that excel in teaching professionalism are the exception, not the rule, said David Doukas, M.D., Tulane School of Medicine chair of humanities and ethics in medicine and director of the school’s program in medical ethics and human values.

Doukas delivered the annual William and Marjorie Sirridge Lecture on March 1 during which he applauded the school’s program of medical humanities and bioethics.

“We have to have a curriculum that teaches medical learners how to integrate what their role is as a scientist with the application of medical ethics and humanities to promote patient welfare,” Doukas said.

William Sirridge, M.D., and his wife Marjorie Sirridge, M.D., two of the school’s founding docents, established the Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities in 1992. It offered what was recognized as a unique program among medical schools in its approach to providing medical students classes that tie together medical arts, bioethics and humanities. Renamed the Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities and Bioethics in 2008, the program instills medical humanities and bioethics throughout its six-year curriculum.

“Both of the Sirridges had the passion and vision for weaving the medical humanities into clinical medicine, into medical education, and they were both trailblazers and advocates,” School of Medicine Dean Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., said. “Their vision allowed them to be mentors and serve as role models for all of us. They were the heart of the School of Medicine in our early days and they had a lasting legacy that will never be forgotten.”

Doukas said medical schools need leaders to implement curriculums that teach medical students and residents to integrate their role as a scientist with the application of medical ethics and humanities in a way that promotes patient welfare.

He commended the School of Medicine for having such a program.

“You have a large palette of medical humanities courses, you have experiences and role modeling that oversees the professional identity formation for all of your learners,” Doukas said. “You are to be applauded.”

School of Medicine pays tribute to long-time minority affairs leader Reaner Shannon

-PRN, Faculty, ODI
Tyler Smith, M.D., Pamela Shannon, Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., Mike Weaver, M.D.

UMKC School of Medicine celebrated the memory and legacy of Reaner Shannon, its long-time director and associate dean of minority affairs, with a special tribute on Feb. 24.

Following the school’s annual Dr. Reaner and Mr. Henry Shannon Lectureship in Minority Health, Tyler Smith, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, and Shannon’s daughter, Pamela, unveiled a portrait of Shannon, who was a staunch promoter of diversity and equity within the school and throughout Kansas City for 34 years before her retirement in 2008.

Reaner Shannon died last July at the age of 85. Her husband, Henry Shannon, died just five months later, in December, at the age of 89.

Pamela thanked Smith and School of Medicine Dean Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., for recognizing her parents and for the honor of keeping her mother’s legacy alive at the medical school.

“Hospital Hill meant so much to my parents,” she said. “It’s where their careers began and where they ended. This has been like home for us.”

Below the portrait that now hangs on a wall outside the School of Medicine’s theaters is a plaque honoring Shannon as “a leader, educator, scholar, researcher and mentor. She was a tireless advocate and activist for diversity, equity and inclusion for students, residents, fellows, faculty and staff at the UMKC School of Medicine and people in the Kansas City Community.”

Former School of Medicine Dean Betty Drees, M.D., said Reaner and Henry Shannon “were such pioneers in the work that they did and left such as wonderful legacy.”

The Shannons established their annual lectureship that now takes place each February during Black History Month to create an awareness of health disparities and provide medical professionals, students, residents and the local community information about timely issues that affect underserved and minority communities.

The list of those who have delivered the Shannon Lecture over the years is filled with local, regional and national health leaders. Among those are a long line of notable government and organizational health care leaders such as Jocelyn Elders, former U.S. surgeon general (2006), Gloria Wilder-Brathwaite, founder of Justice Speaks (2008), Louis Sullivan, former U.S. secretary of health and human services (2015), J. Nadine Gracia, deputy assistant secretary of minority health and director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2016), Altha J. Stewart, president of the American Psychiatric Association (2019), and Patrice Harris, past president of the American Medical Association (2021).

Reaner Shannon began her career at the school as the main research lab technologist. In 1990, she left the laboratory to become the School of Medicine’s director of the minority affairs office. She became the school’s first associate dean for minority affairs in 1998, a post she held until she retired.

Smith served as the keynote speaker for this year’s lectureship, addressing the importance of mentorship, coaching and sponsorship of “underserved-in-medicine health professionals.” She spoke about how Shannon was a champion of supporting and advocating for students.

“Every medical school needs to have a person like a Dr. Shannon,” Smith said. “One of the joys she had was to serve as a mentor to students interested in science and in medicine.”

Med School’s Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., an honored academic leader

-PRN, Alumni

Editors of Ingram’s Magazine selected UMKC School of Medicine Dean Mary Anne Jackson, (M.D. ’78) as one of the region’s outstanding academic leaders, naming her to their 2023 class of Icons of Education.

Jackson has served as the ninth dean of the medical school since May 2020 and is the third woman to serve as dean in the school’s 50-plus year history. Jackson also served as interim dean for two years. She is part of a class of eight educators and administrators from Missouri and Kansas featured in the February edition of Ingram’s and honored at a formal luncheon.

A pediatric infectious diseases expert affiliated with Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Jackson is recognized internationally for her research. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, she was one of six physicians statewide who served as advisors to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson. She also continues to be a frequently sourced expert for the media and national publications.

Jackson is recognized locally, regionally and nationally as a master clinician and educator on pediatric infectious diseases. The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Infectious Diseases Executive Committee honored her with the 2019 Award for Lifetime Contribution in Infectious Diseases Education. She has served on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Red Book Committee on Infectious Diseases and as a journal reviewer for the American Journal of Infection Control, Journal of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal and JAMA Pediatrics.

Jackson has won numerous awards for her mentorship, including the Children’s Mercy Department of Pediatrics’ Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2015 and Golden Apple Mentoring Awards in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, she received the UMKC School of Medicine’s prestigious E. Grey Dimond, M.D., Take Wing Award, presented to alumni who have demonstrated excellence in their chosen field.

SOM Grad Linda Siy, M.D., Selected Texas Family Physician of the Year

Alumni, ,

UMKC School of Medicine alumna Linda Siy, (M.D. ’90) was awarded the 2022 Texas Family Physician of the Year award by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians.

She received the highest honor among Texas family doctors during TAFP’s Annual Session and Primary Care Summit in Grapevine, Texas, on Oct. 29.

Patients and physicians nominate extraordinary family physicians throughout Texas who symbolize excellence and dedication in family medicine each year. A panel of TAFP members chooses only one as the Family Physician of the Year.

“It truly is an honor to join the ranks of those who have received this distinction, and I’m very humbled to be considered with those distinguished colleagues who previously were Family Physicians of the Year,” Siy said while accepting the award.

Siy, a family physician for more than 30 years, practices at John Peter Smith Health Network at the Northeast Medical Home in Tarrant County, a practice she’s been a part of since 1995. She is also a faculty member at the University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine, the University of North Texas Health Science Center/Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Texas Christian University Burnett School of Medicine.

Throughout her years in organized medicine, Siy has served on many committees and councils for both TAFP and the American Academy and has been president of the TAFP Foundation since 2017. She serves on the Acclaim Multispecialty Group’s Physician Board of Directors and previously served as president of the Tarrant County Medical Society and TAFP’s Tarrant County chapter.

Siy has spent her career in medicine treating her loyal and multi-generational families of patients, many of whom are underserved, suffer from housing and food insecurity and struggle with mental health and substance abuse. Many of her nominators mentioned her willingness to speak up and ask the questions others are too afraid to ask. They also pointed to her dedication to teaching the next generation of family physicians.

“I think what’s kept me in the game for so long at the place where I work now are those rewarding relationships with your patients, with your staff, with your colleagues,” Siy said. “It’s really not a job. It’s a calling.”

UMKC Celebrates a Champion of Medical Education

-PRN

Harry S. Jonas, M.D. (1926-2022), the second dean of the UMKC School of Medicine, helped establish the school’s unique six-year B.A./M.D. program and successfully defended the model against significant challenges.

As an administrator, Jonas effectively guided the fledgling medical school through serious early doubts from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the national accrediting organization for medical schools, which questioned the school’s unconventional six-year program that accepted medical students directly out of high school. Today, the model is generally accepted as a means to educate outstanding physicians.

Jonas was also known as a champion of those under his watch. Students and faculty who knew him well remember him as an extraordinary instructor and mentor who valued his students. In return they held him in equally high esteem.

Jonas, dean from 1978 to 1987, died just before Christmas.

Nearly 700 physicians earned their medical degrees from the school during his tenure as dean. One of them, Michele Kilo, M.D., ’84, remained in close contact with Jonas following his time at the medical school. Kilo said she and many of her fellow alumni shared similar experiences and fond memories of their former dean.

“Dr. Jonas’ impact on my life and my career and my years at the UMKC School of Medicine will always be remembered,” Kilo said. “His legacy of warmth, true caring and excellence in all endeavors will live on and never be forgotten.”

Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., ’78, current School of Medicine dean, met Jonas for the first time as a medical student in 1974. Jonas served as chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Truman Medical Center, now University Health, at the time.

“His passion for teaching students and residents was exceptional, and I knew with him at the helm we were learning the state-of-the art practices in all aspects of women’s health,” Jackson said.

Jonas served two years in the Navy during World War II before returning home to complete his undergraduate and medical degrees at Washington University in St. Louis. He moved to Independence, Missouri, in 1956 to become a private-practice physician and found himself drawn to academia.

His work in academic medicine started as a volunteer instructor in the residency program at Kansas City’s General Hospitals 1 and 2. He was recruited to serve as the hospitals’ first chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a role he continued to serve when Truman Medical Center replaced the old General Hospital.

He took on a new role in 1978 when he was chosen to become the second dean of the UMKC School of Medicine, where he had also served as both an assistant dean and chairman of the Council on Evaluation.

“Different deans do different things,” Jonas said in a publication celebrating the school’s 25th anniversary. “Some are researchers, some are planners that go inside their office and close the door and plan for the future and then there are others who are very externally oriented. I was probably in that category.”

Kilo said, “He was approachable to School of Medicine students in ways that are remarkable and not typical of most deans, including greeting us by name, holding wonderful dinners at his home that always included medical students in a warm and inviting environment, and showing his interest in each of us personally, not just our grades or our career goals, but how we were doing as human beings and whether we were thriving socially.”

Following his tenure as dean, Jonas spent more than a decade with the American Medical Association in Chicago where he served as assistant vice president, and as secretary of the LCME, the body that once questioned the UMKC model.

He returned to Kansas City in 2000 to play another key role in the development of the School of Medicine’s curriculum. As a special consultant to the dean, Jonas was instrumental in creating a new geriatrics curriculum for first-year medical students. That program continues today, pairing students in a year-long mentoring experience with residents of John Knox Village, a Kansas City-area retirement community.

Kilo said Jonas served as her mentor, listening and providing guidance recently as she was in the midst of making a major career change. Likewise, when Jackson became interim dean of the medical school in 2018, Jonas made a point of connecting with her to share his experiences and wisdom for achieving success in her new role.

“He invited me to lunch to impart his knowledge and advice,” Jackson said. “He continued to come in person to important School of Medicine events and attended our 50th anniversary gala in June of 2022. All who knew Dr. Jonas could be confident that he was promoting our school locally, regionally and within national circles. He will be greatly missed.”

 

 

 

School of Medicine Grads Selected as Student Honor Recipients

-PRN,
UMKC celebrated more than 800 Fall 2022 graduates on Dec. 18 at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City.

Two graduating School of Medicine students were honored as Dean of Students Honor Recipients for the 2022 fall semester.

Francesca Moisson, who will graduate with her M.D. degree this month, and Turquoise Templeton, who will receive her master’s in bioinformatics, were recognized for their scholastic performance, community leadership and service.

Moisson and Templeton are two of five School of Medicine students who graduated in December. They are joined by Molly Pasque, also receiving her M.D. degree, Zhiheng Zhang, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in biomedical and health informatics, and Jennifer Dutton, master of medical science-physician assistant.

Each semester, the Dean of Students Honors program distinguishes honors graduating students who maintain high scholastic performance and actively participate in university and community leadership and service activities outside of the classroom. Seven UMKC recipients were recognized at a special breakfast celebration in their honor.

“Our students embody the values of UMKC with their dedication to their academic success and service to the university and surrounding communities,” said Michele D. Smith, Ph.D., vice provost for student affairs and dean of students. “As the dean of students, I am proud to recognize their achievements and know without a doubt they all have successful futures ahead of them.”

UMKC recognized its 2022 mid-year graduates at the annual mid-year commencement on Dec. 18 at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center. Bob Carpenter, a UMKC alumnus and announcer for Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, was the ceremony’s keynote speaker.

Med Students Organize a Big Gift from Santa

-PRN, ,
Rohan Chakrabarty (top left) and Dylan Hailey (middle) are surrounded by volunteers who helped purchase toys for Operation Santa’s Sleigh.

Santa drives a Lamborghini.

That was the case on Dec. 11 when a couple of UMKC School of Medicine students who also happen to be car enthusiasts organized Operation Santa’s Sleigh, a parade of more than 30 exotic cars with police and fire department escort that delivered nearly $11,000 of toys and gifts to Children’s Mercy-Kansas City Hospital.

“Many kids get sick and find themselves in the hospital during the winter holidays, which is supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year,” said UMKC medical student Rohan Chakrabarty. “We work closely with Children’s Mercy Hospital, so we chose to partner with them in a toy-drive project with a car-enthusiast twist.”

Chakrabarty and classmate Dylan Hailey are self-described car fanatics. Earlier this year the two decided to put their passion for cars to work organizing car shows and related charity events to benefit causes related to health care.

The pair organized their first event, a car show with the theme Cars Beyond the Boulevard, last May to benefit Care Beyond the Boulevard, a mobile medical clinic that serves the homeless and poverty stricken in downtown Kansas City. With the help of some of Kansas City’s leading car clubs, their show drew nearly 300 cars and raised more than $12,000 for the clinic.

“We had some goals in mind about how many cars we wanted and how much money we wanted to raise and we smashed all of them,” Hailey said. “It was awesome. We were just so stoked by how successful it was.”

It was enough that the pair went a step further in September, working with a lawyer the pair created their own non-profit organization. The 0-to-60 Foundation partners with some of Kansas City’s top car clubs, such as KC Exotics & Supercar Club and the Dream Team Car Club KC, to organize charity events.

“They have been super welcoming of us and, honestly, they really have become our friends and the community people we can turn to if we have questions about things,” Chakrabarty said. “We just used our passion and started networking with a bunch of these people. Obviously, they have a shared passion with us with cars and they liked hearing our story.”

Chakrabarty and Hailey put together an executive board for the 0-to-60 Foundation and with the help of medical students Lara Makhoul, Shelby Soukup and Isabella Boedefeld and others, assembled teams of nearly 50 students from throughout the UMKC community to help the cause.

The next idea was to create one big event that anyone – car enthusiast or not – could get involved with. That became Operation Santa’s Sleigh. Reaching out to local companies and doing fundraisers, the foundation raised $10,832 dollars. More than 20 UMKC students and car club members then met to participate in two toy buying events at local Target stores. The first event filled more than 12 shopping carts with purchases.

The group also reached out to the Kansas City police and fire departments, which agreed to get involved and provide an escort for an exotic car parade that totaled nearly 50 vehicles from Kansas City’s World War I Memorial to Children’s Mercy to deliver the toys.

Many of those went to the hospital’s Snowflake Shop, which will allow families and patients to pick up gifts at no cost. Others will go to units throughout the hospital that can be used communally, Chakrabarty said.

“I can’t imagine being a kid during Christmas and having to be in a hospital, not to mention the other struggles those families are experiencing during this time,” said Chakrabarty, who had his own hospital experience as a child who underwent an open-heart surgery. “You put all that together and it made me feel like this would be something good for us to do.”

Chakrabarty and Hailey say they already have their next event in mind, organizing another car show to help Care Beyond the Boulevard raise funds to purchase and equip a new clinic bus.

“We think we could definitely blow some of the donations that we’ve had so far out of the water,” Chakrabarty said. “We’re thinking really big and want to make sure we make a really big impact. We have the gears turning in our heads.”

Of course, Chakrabarty is willing to admit that there may be a little more than altruistic motives behind their efforts.

“Some of these events are selfish for us because we get to see all the cars, and in some cases get to drive some of these cool cars,” he said. “That’s really awesome. It kind of comes full circle.”

UMKC Researcher Receives $2.2 Million NIH Grant to Explore Expanded COVID-19 Testing

-PRN, Faculty, Research, ,

Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., director of the UMKC Health Equity Institute and a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the School of Medicine, has received a nearly $2.2 million, two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health for a project designed to increase testing and treatment for COVID-19 by partnering with African American churches and health agencies. 

The effort is part of an NIH initiative called Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-Up); a consortium of community-engaged research projects designed to increase access to COVID testing in underserved communities.  

The randomized trial will study the effectiveness of a religiously tailored intervention in motivating adult African American church and community members to be tested and to seek treatment for COVID-19.  

“We will work collaboratively with our churches to encourage people to not only get the rapid COVID test, but to get treatment that could potentially help reduce their symptoms and likely keep them out of the hospital.” – Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D.

Working with 12 community churches in the Kansas City area, the program will engage the help of pastors to promote testing and demonstrate to their congregations how testing works. Among other services, the churches will also offer rapid COVID testing and provide support and referrals to treatment to those who test positive. 

“Our project will examine whether people really want to get tested and seek treatment if we use a religiously tailored approach,” Berkley-Patton said. “We will work collaboratively with our churches to encourage people to not only get the rapid COVID test, but to get treatment that could potentially help reduce their symptoms and likely keep them out of the hospital. 

“We’re hoping this approach can be informative not only for this study but for other types of rapid diagnostics that can lead to treatment, especially if the referral is made quickly and support is provided.”  

The new grant-funded study is a continuation of Berkley-Patton’s Faithful Response to COVID-19 project, a two-year, NIH-backed clinical trial that started in January 2021 to promote COVID-19 testing with the African American community with the support of churches and other faith-based and community organizations. 

Those efforts were so successful in testing and raising awareness that the Jackson County Legislature awarded a $5 million grant to support Our Healthy Kansas City Eastside, another UMKC Health Equity Institute project that administered nearly 13,000 COVID vaccinations to members of Kansas City’s minority and underrepresented communities in just 18 months. The county recently extended that program as well with the support of an additional $5 million grant. 

“In the early days of the pandemic, COVID testing was not available to everyone. Access to testing was particularly limited in underserved communities, which led to the NIH initiative RADxUP,” Berkley-Patton said. “In the initial project, we are demonstrating that people will take the test at a church site – and even more so when the efforts are religiously and culturally tailored.” 

The new study will examine the beliefs and practices of those in underserved communities toward rapid COVID-19 self-testing. Researchers also will study the effectiveness of contact tracing as well as care services such as referrals to treatment, health insurance and community resources. 

“With this model, many of our Faithful Response materials are packaged in an easy-to-use toolkit that our community partners helped to create, and can be disseminated in print or electronic formats,” Berkley-Patton said. “We’re hoping the toolkit can be widely disseminated across the country if we can show that the first Faithful Response project was effective and double that up with efficacy of the second project.”