Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Thomas Jefferson University Research - A Path To Digital Equity

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

Inside this issue:

04 Editorial

05 Leadership Message

06 Global Jefferson

08 Bursts of Power

09 Antitrust Laws Don’t Hinder Foreign Investment Cancer Prediction Model Misses High-Risk Black Patients

10 Enveloping Buildings in Textiles Learning from Drowsy Flies

12 COVID Briefs

13 Jefferson by the Numbers

14 Inflecting the Narrative on African Studies

16 Journey of Adaptation

18 A Path Towards Digital Equity

24 JeffSolves: A New Way of Thinking

30 The Heart’s "Little Brain"

36 RNA like You’ve Never Seen Before

38 Online Content

Thomas Jefferson University Research - Convergent Thinking, Creative Application

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

One way we accomplish our distinctive programmatic approach to research is by organizing as multidisciplinary centers and institutes around specific challenges. Led by visionaries and staffed by experts, these entities enable us to more quickly move discovery to translation and application; and they are excellent environments for training colleagues and students to address the practical challenges the world presents.

Jeffsolves With Student Innovation

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

The JeffSolves MedTech program teams industrial design and medical students to develop innovative solutions to specific healthcare problems. Having chosen particular, concrete challenges faced by medical patients, student teams collaborate to conduct in-depth user research and problem identification, develop potentially marketable solutions and create prototype products. “The solutions these teams create are consistently remarkable and effective,” says Bon Ku, MD, assistant dean for health and design at Sidney Kimmel Medical College.

A Design For Mitigating Patient Hypothermia

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

General anesthesia during surgery can impair the body’s autonomic temperature regulation and lead to patients having dangerously low body temperature. That, in turn, increases an array of clinical risks, including poor wound healing and infection, excess blood loss, cardiac arrhythmias and impaired renal function. Unfortunately, current surgical gowns— which have very little thermal capability—provide no significant protection against heat loss.

For that reason, a cross-disciplinary team of Jefferson students and faculty—with expertise in anesthesiology, mechanical engineering, textile engineering, textile technology and fashion design—is creating a new type of patient garment that is intended to mitigate the problem of surgically related …

Does Art Reduce Bias Among Healthcare Providers?

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

Katherine Cambareri, who earned an MPH from Jefferson in 2019, works as a clinical research coordinator at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also a serious photographer and deeply interested in exploring the synergies between public health and art.

In 2016, Cambareri created a photographic exhibition by documenting the clothes worn by survivors of sexual violence when they were assaulted. The exhibit’s photographs—individually straightforward, collectively powerful—were created with the intention of increasing understanding of sexual assault and challenging false assumptions of those who blame the victim. The exhibition titled “Well, What Were You Wearing?” has been presented across the country …

Fusing Discovery, Imagination And Application, Mark L. Tykocinski, Md

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

Thomas Jefferson University is a unique institution, marked by dualities: simultaneously new and deeply experienced; steeped in tradition and heedless of traditional boundaries; professionally focused and committed to knowledge-creation.

We conduct research both for itself and as an essential part of the educational process. In doing so, we fuse discovery, imagination and application—weaving together the pursuit of basic knowledge with its innovative translation and creative application. We strive to redefine the term “humanly possible” in disciplines ranging from immunology and vaccine development to design and creation of functional fabrics.

Thomas Jefferson University Research - Fusing Discovery, Imagination And Application

Thomas Jefferson University Research Magazine

These 60 pages offer just a glimpse of the range and depth of studies undertaken across the Thomas Jefferson University research enterprise.

To learn more about Research at Jefferson, go to Jefferson.edu/Research2020.