The Utah Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (Utah StARR) program is designed to prepare outstanding residents for a career in academic medicine and clinical investigation by providing them with opportunities to learn and practice clinical, transitional, health service, and community-engaged research skills during their residency training. Utah StARR will provide an early "on-ramp" to research careers for competitive academic faculty positions.
Participating residency programs:
The program main components are: career mentoring, individual development plan, non-degree coursework, research seminars, grant writing, pre-submission grant review, pre-award support and writing workshops. Click here for an overview of the Utah StARR resources.
Because the recruitment and training of clinician-researchers is such a high priority at the current time, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has implemented a loan-forgiveness program for doctors who commit to a career in clinical research. Individuals in the Utah StARR program may consider applying for the loan-forgiveness program when their residency is completed.
Additional information about the program or information on application procedures, please visit our application information page or email us at utahstarr@utah.edu.
You may also download and reference our informational slides for more information: /media/21071
Utah StARR Scholar Highlights
UStARR Scholar Dr. Boomer Olsen Presents at the ATTD Conference
Boomer Olsen recently attended and presented at the Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD) conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands. ATTD focuses on innovative research that advances diabetes treatment. Boomer is investigating machine learning (ML) applications in diabetes research. At ATTD, he presented ML projects that aimed to (1) characterize disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes-related gastroparesis and (2) quantify and predict the risk for ischemic heart disease across diabetes subgroups.
Utah StARR Scholars Present at AHA
Utah StARR scholars Dr. Kayla Jordanova and Dr. Alex Kolomaya both attended and presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Conference in New Orleans this spring, along with Program Director Dr. Molly Conroy.
Dr. Jordanova presented preliminary results from her qualitative work for the MAINTAIN PRIME primary care-based weight loss maintenance trial, under Principal Investigators Dr. Molly Conroy and Dr. Kensaku Kawamoto. She interviewed patients who received the health coaching intervention delivered through the electronic health record (EHR), with interview topics relating to the EHR platform for health coaching, the patient-coach relationship, and the integration of coaching into primary care. She found that most participants had positive perceptions of the asynchronous coaching through the EHR. However, some participants suggested that adding face-to-face meetings with their health coach and personalizing coaching messages could have strengthened the patient-coach relationship. Participants also noted that additional discussions with their PCP regarding trial participation and weight management may have increased their sense of integration and support.
Dr. Kolomaya's presentation explored how patients with atrial fibrillation make decisions about using blood thinners to prevent strokes, a choice that involves balancing the risk of stroke with the risk of bleeding. His team found that most patients prioritized stroke prevention, especially those at higher risk or with a history of bleeding. People already taking blood thinners, older adults, and women were more likely to prefer stroke prevention. Overall, both patients’ medical risk and their personal values played a key role in whether they decided to use blood thinners.Kayla
Access Archived UStARR News
UStARR ArchiveUStARR Scholar Presentations
Kayla Jordanova
Victoria Vardell & Alex Zheutlin
Meet the Utah StARR Program Directors
Molly Conroy MD, MPH is a Primary Care Provider and General Internist at the Madsen Internal Medicine Clinic. As a General Internist, her clinical interests include physical activity and lifestyle counseling, weight management, cardiovascular disease prevention, hypertension management, and women’s health. Dr. Conroy received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and her MD from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed an Internal Medicine residency in the Primary Care Track at the University of California, San Francisco and a General Internal Medicine Fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and recognized as a Fellow of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association.
Joe Stanford, MD, MSPH, CFCMC, is the Professor and Director of the Office of Cooperative Reproductive Health at the UofU School of Medicine and is the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. With expertise in reproductive epidemiology, restorative reproductive medicine, natural family planning, women's health, and periconceptional/prenatal origins of health, he has led five preconception cohort studies. Stanford has contributed to national scientific advisory committees, including for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Food and Drug Administration's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs. Dr. Stanford also serves on the board of the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine.