ASRT honors MRI program; SOD students earn research prizes

MRI faculty, students’ article earns distinguished author honor 

Last June, the Editorial Review Board of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists selected a research article written by magnetic resonance imaging faculty and students in the School of Health Related Professions to receive the ASRT Distinguished Author Award.

The Jean I. Widger Award is given to a peer-reviewed article as the most outstanding manuscript of the calendar year. The article, “Safety Resources and Processes in MR Imaging Departments,” was published in the January/February 2019 issue of Radiologic Technology.

Authors of the article include Dr. Asher Street Beam, assistant professor of radiologic sciences and director of the Master of Science in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Program; Dr. James M. Ketchum, associate professor of radiologic sciences; Audrey Wilson of St. Dominic Hospital; Chris Scoles of St. Dominic Hospital; Ikia Celestine of the Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas; Layna Phillips Blaylock of St. Dominic Hospital; Tyler Patrick of the Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Clinic; and Zack Gray, assistant professor of radiologic sciences. Wilson, Scoles, Phillips, Blaylock, Celestine, Patrick and Gray are graduates of the MSMRI Program at UMMC.

The honor carries a $1,000 cash award, which the authors donated to the Radiologic Sciences Development Fund.

The goal of the original research was to identify current standards of safety practices, common safety resources in use and gaps in workflow practices in MRI departments. The authors found that proper screening of patients and other individuals, appropriate use of barriers and ferromagnetic detection systems can be effective tools for ensuring patient and personnel safety.

Although various safety resources were available at most MR imaging facilities, the resources proved to be only as effective as the safety practices of the MR technologists. The authors suggest that safety practices in MR imaging departments can be improved continually.

SOD student first in Mississippi to receive ADA new investigator award

William “Bo” Key, a senior School of Dentistry student, received the 2020 John W. Stanford New Investigator Award for Standards-Related Research from the American Dental Association.

Key is the first recipient of the award from Mississippi, said his mentor, Dr. Jason Griggs, professor of biomedical materials science and associate dean for research.

Key was honored for his research on “Fracture Toughness and Fractal Analysis of Ceramic Benchmark Materials.”

Key will receive a $1,000 honorarium and will be invited to present his paper at the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products and the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 106 on Dentistry that will meet this summer. National and international dental standards will be discussed at those meetings.

“It was a pleasure conducting research with Bo because he is so patient and pays attention to details,” Griggs said. “Bo has a friendly smile and chuckled even when the specimens that he worked hours to prepare didn’t fracture in the right way. He gladly prepared new sets of specimens several times.

“I’m sure that his future patients will appreciate his positive attitude and his determination to not give up.”

Dentistry students’ discovery projects garner Research Day rewards

School of Dentistry students received accolades during the recent Research Day awards presentation.

Hunter Horton received the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Student Research Award of $250 and the American Association for Dental Research Student Research Award: a trip to represent UMMC at the AADR conference in Atlanta for his project, “Porosity as a Function of Mixing Methods: A Micro-CT Analysis of a Resin Cement.” His faculty advisors were Rodrigo Ottoni and Dr. Susana Salazar Marocho.

Casey Park received the Hinman Student Research Award, a trip to represent UMMC at the Hinman Student Research Symposium in Memphis, for the project, “Spatter-reduction Efficacy of Different Suction Methods in Ultrasonic Scaling Procedure.” Faculty advisors were Dr. Niping Wang, Catherine Gatewood, Dr. Stephen Stray and Dr. Jennifer Bain.

Catherine “Catie Lee” Bruni received the AADR/DentsplySirona Student Clinician Research Award, a trip to represent UMMC at the SCADA competition in Atlanta, and the People’s Choice Award for her project, “Photocatalytic Activity of Silver-enhanced Crystalline Titanium Oxide Coatings.” Her faculty advisors were Dr. Amol Janorkar, Dr. Mary Marquart and Dr. Michael Roach. Haden Johnson, a graduate student, also served as an advisor.

Serving as judges for the Research Day event were Dr. Grace de Souza, Dr. Sarah Adcock and Dr. Ahmad Abdelkarim.