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For KU medical students, a financial award recognizing their research is a welcome benefit

Thanks to the Wichita Medical Research & Education Foundation, KU School of Medicine-Wichita students earn awards at the 33rd annual Research Forum.

Students hold up big checks during the Research Forum
From left to right: Samuel Ofei-Dodoo, Ph.D., MPA, M.A., CPH, assistant dean for undergraduate medical education; medical students Nicole Thurman and Jonathan Parrott; and Alan Fearey, M.D., Wichita Medical Research & Education Foundation official, stand together during an awards presentation at the 33rd annual Research Forum in Wichita.

For KU School of Medicine-Wichita students Jonathan Parrott and Nicole Thurman, earning a financial award for their respective research projects was an unexpected bonus.

During KU School of Medicine-Wichita's 33rd annual Research Forum in mid-April, Parrott and Thurman each received a $1,500 check from the Wichita Medical Research & Education Foundation, a local independent nonprofit with a mission to promote research, education and other efforts to improve the health of Kansans.

Foundation officials Peggy Johnson and Alan Fearey, M.D., who attended the forum, said they were impressed with the caliber of research being done by KUSM-Wichita medical students who were considered for the two WMREF Outstanding Medical Student Research Awards.

To qualify, the students are required to present and write a publication-ready article on their findings.

“When I went through medical school, I was swamped just trying to learn the basic information and I'm not sure that I could have done any of this research, but I think it's good for them to get their feet wet,” said Fearey, president of the WMREF’s board. A longtime internal medicine physician before retiring in 2020, Fearey was responsible for reviewing the student research projects and making the final award selections.

While the WMREF regularly supports student research efforts at various medical education programs in Wichita, it is working with Samuel Ofei-Dodoo, Ph.D., MPA, M.A., CPH, assistant dean for undergraduate medical education, to expand support for research projects being done by KUSM-Wichita medical students, said Johnson, the foundation’s executive director and chief operating officer.

“Research plays an important role in medical education. It not only contributes to scientific advancement but also provides students with opportunities to distinguish themselves and enhance their competitiveness during the residency application process," Ofei-Dodoo said. “Conducting research requires significant effort, including data collection, analysis and dissemination of results, often through presentations at scientific conferences, which may involve travel.”

Attendees seated in the Roberts Amphitheater at KU School of Medicine-Wichita during a Research Forum presentationThe financial awards help offset the costs of doing research such as purchasing database information, hiring statisticians or paying article submission fees.

For Parrott and Thurman, the award checks affirmed and validated their ability to do research, they said.

“I’d heard I was getting an award, and I thought it might be a gift card to Amazon or a $100 check,” Parrott said. “And then they handed me a $1,500 check. That was very generous.”

Parrott worked with the medical director of the Kansas Department of Corrections in his observational study of medication prescriptions for mental health conditions among Kansas’ incarcerated population. The study compared inmate age, gender, facility location and level of severity to the type of medications prescribed, said Parrott, who chose to focus on Kansas’ incarcerated population in part because his grandfather helped build the Sedgwick County Detention Center.  

In presenting his research findings, Parrott said his study showed a need for more aggregate-level data to better treat mental health issues among imprisoned individuals. Parrott is in the process of submitting his manuscript to various journals.

Thurman laughed when she heard that some in the audience thought she did a celebratory dance on her way down the auditorium stairs to pick up her award.

“I’m glad they think that, but my heel had come off and I was trying to fix that malfunction,” she said.

Thurman said it was particularly meaningful to get the award since it was suggested she consider another research topic because of the initial low response rates to her survey.

Thurman’s research project compared the knowledge and confidence levels in prescribing contraceptives between residents in KU’s OB-GYN and family medicine programs in Kansas City and Wichita. The survey, which included knowledge-based questions and demographic details, found no significant difference in knowledge between the two groups. She presented her findings at forums in Kansas City and Wichita, and her abstract was published in the Kansas Journal of Medicine.

"The driving force behind this project was my interest in the topic and understanding that this was something that needed to be talked about and hadn't been addressed before, assessing how well we're training our residents at prescribing contraceptives. That's something that there wasn't a lot of research already out there. ...  I'm going to be applying to an OB-GYN residency, so that's my future. With various political and ethical conversations regarding contraceptives, I thought it was really important that we get this data out there," she said. "Access to contraceptives is important in patient health care."

Thurman shared her findings at research forums in Kansas City and Wichita. An abstract of her project was published in the Kansas Journal of Medicine, and she is preparing a manuscript for publication in the KJM.

Explore the research

Abstracts from the 33rd annual Research Forum at KU School of Medicine-Wichita can be viewed online through the Kansas Journal of Medicine.

See more photos

View the Flickr photo album from the 33rd annual Research Forum at KU School of Medicine-Wichita.


KU School of Medicine-Wichita