PathOlogical Life Sciences Training Program for Students and Families

Project Description

Inequality or differences in the burden of disease remains a persistent and growing public health problem for the United States. To help address this problem it is important to increase the public’s knowledge of and access to reliable information about life sciences and the newest medical treatments. At the same time disease inequalities can be addressed by increasing the number of scientists and doctors who are representative of the groups experiencing these differences in disease. To help reduce disease inequalities the Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC) through the Office of Cultural Enhancement and Diversity and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine will develop the Kansas PathOlogical Life Sciences Training Program.

This program will create activities that will improve area high school students’ knowledge about clinical research and life sciences; improve life science and health literacy in communities; and increase community awareness of clinical research and the clinical trial process in order to improve the participation by underrepresented communities. The overall goal of this project is to develop programs that will increase knowledge of and access to life sciences and clinical trial information for students and communities in Kansas City.

Abstract

The Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC) through the Office of Cultural Enhancement and Diversity will leverage our 20-year history of success in establishing robust partnerships between K–20 students teachers families communities and our academic health center to develop and implement a five- Phase I and II inquiry based multimodal project. The proposed project, Kansas PathOlogical Life Sciences Training Program, will create programs and activities that will improve area high school students knowledge about clinical research and life sciences; improve life science and health literacy in our communities; and increase community awareness of clinical research and knowledge about the clinical trial process in order to improve underrepresented communities participation.

There are five main components to Phase I.

First, we will engage four 10th–12th Kansas City Kansas (KCK) students from our partner high schools as PathOlogical Biomedical Library Interns. These students will assist in identifying science/evidence-based literature information about NIH supported clinical research and clinical trials and health disparities for use in our curriculum.

Second, we will develop and implement Camp PathOlogical an innovative 5-week inquiry-based biomedical science summer program for 24 underrepresented minority (URM) or underserved students in 11th-12th grades. We will apply problem based learning standardized patients and electronic health records to teach the pathologic basis of disease and how this knowledge informs patient diagnosis management and prediction tour the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and develop clinical trials specific to our patient or “problem.” Faculty will include KCK USD500 master teachers KCK Community College (KCKCC) and KUMC faculty.

Third, KUMC and KCKCC faculty will develop and implement a seminar series targeting students teachers and families that will increase life science literacy knowledge about clinical trials and insight into barriers for URM participation in clinical trials.

Fourth we will engage 25 high school students to develop multimedia programs using technology such as streaming video DVD and cable broadcast.

Fifth we will engage 10 11th–12th grade students in partnership with our GCRC in clinical and translational research.

This project builds on our committed efforts to increase awareness interest preparedness and ultimately participation of URM in science and health professions careers. In Phase II we will disseminate our programs to the Greater Kansas City area, and nationally using student participation multimedia materials web-based technologies and the Library systems-Biomedical School Districts and State.

Inequality or differences in the burden of disease remains a stubborn and growing public health problem for the United States. Increased knowledge of and access to reliable information about life sciences and the newest treatments along with increasing the number of scientists and doctors who come from the people who experience these differences in disease will go far to correct this problem. The overall goal of this project is to develop programs and activities that will increase knowledge of and access to life sciences and clinical trial information for students and communities in Kansas City.