For future emergency medicine physician Travis Hase, educating health care providers about the devastating impact of prescription opioid misuse, overdose, and addiction is a true passion.
“Emergency physicians play an important role in recognizing trends that have public health implications and alarming those who have an interest and can take preventative action,” said Hase, a third-year medical student at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS).
Hase’s poster was one of the more than 280 presented at the university’s 20th annual health and medicine-themed GW Research Day. The event highlights the partnership among GW’s Office of the Vice President for Research, SMHS, the School of Nursing, the Milken Institute of Public Health at GW, and Children’s National Health System, and focuses on the health and wellness of local, national, and global communities.
The scope of research presented by this year’s crop of medical students, health sciences students, residents, and fellows ranged from basic science research projects to translational efforts seeking to convert more fundamental discoveries into patient-focused applications to human-subject investigations exploring the effectiveness of new therapies and practices.
Research is a critical component of SMHS and GW, explained Robert Miller, Ph.D., Vivian Gill Distinguished Research, senior associate dean for research, and professor of anatomy and regenerative biology at SMHS.
Miller was struck by “the remarkable breadth of the research and the talent and sophistication” of this year’s pool of young investigators. “We need to encourage and support that activity.”