Research at AWSOM
Research at AWSOM advances biomedical discovery and forges transformative knowledge to improve human whole health. Our students work closely with faculty mentors to lead research spanning clinical and translational sciences, social determinants of health, public health policy, health systems and services, and medical education. We support student scholarship by protecting time for research within the curriculum and matching students with faculty mentors from AWSOM and Stanford University. External research partnerships provide additional opportunities for students to pursue innovative and interdisciplinary research. Through these commitments to research education and collaboration, AWSOM tackles profound questions in medicine and whole health.
Faculty Research
The Research Education faculty are internationally recognized scholars in health services and systems research, infectious diseases, neuroscience, and pediatric pharmacology. Their work leverages global, national, and local datasets, including the Global Burden of Disease Study, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), and NIH-funded research consortia.
The Teaching faculty conduct transformative research on medical education, including seed-funded projects on faculty-supervised artificial intelligence tutoring for medical students, an art-based intervention to mitigate medical student stress, and enhancing interprofessional teamwork and education using the arts. Data-intensive research is supported by both local and cloud-based infrastructure for computing and data management.
Research Partnerships
AWSOM maintains active collaborations with leading institutions and research centers across the biomedical and health sciences. Current partners include Stanford University School of Medicine, Mercy, Highlands Oncology, the Institute for Integrative & Innovative Research (I3R), and select University of Arkansas laboratories. These partnerships expand research opportunities for students in human nutrition, health equity, medical imaging, translational science, and population health.
Research Education Team
The Research Education team is a central hub for student research and scholarship. Our team helps students to develop core research competencies and disseminate their scholarship. We facilitate relationships between students and faculty mentors, connect students to research sites and funding opportunities, and explore entrepreneurial ventures for their research.
Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi, PhD | Assistant Dean, Research Education and Professor Dr. Bazargan-Hejazi teaches core research skills and leads research in social determinants of health, health disparities, and public health policy.
Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD, FIDSA | Director, Medical Student Research Projects and Associate Professor Dr. Deshpande teaches epidemiology and leads research in infectious diseases and translational sciences.
Josiah Leong, PhD | Biostatistician Dr. Leong teaches biostatistics and leads research in neuroscience, substance use disorders, and adolescent development.
Richard Parish II, PhD | Adjunct Faculty Dr. Parish teaches medical research ethics and compliance. He is a clinical pharmacist with over 40 years of experience and conducts research in pediatric pharmacology.