PBRN Periodicals

As the chill of winter settles in, we are excited to share the latest updates, achievements, and upcoming events within the PBRN Resource Center. Our practitioner communities and patients continue to flourish, thanks to the unwavering dedication and hard work in bridging the gap between clinical practice and research. Here’s a look at recent activities and what lies ahead.

The IIMS hosted its annual Community Engagement Symposium on December 7, 2024, at the Neighborhood Place in San Antonio, Texas. The event addresses how community-campus partnerships can build trust and cohesion to successfully conduct health research that addresses community priorities. This year’s symposium themed, “Building Trust and Amplifying Voices to Advance the Science of Community Engagement for Health” featured plenary speaking team Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD – Clinical and Translational Sciences Center at UC Davis Health and his community partner, Debra Oto-Kent, MPH – Health Education Council. We also heard from our local UTSA partners and UT Health San Antonio scholars, who shared their work rooted in community engagement. Four posters from our PBRNs were accepted for the research poster fair. The South Texas Oral Health Network presented, “Exploring Dental Practitioners and the South Texas Community Members' Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Smokeless Tobacco Use and its Cessation Practices, A South Texas Oral Health Network Study” and “The Association Between Maxillary Frenum Attachment and Anterior Caries in Children Aged 6 months-3 years: A South Texas Oral Health Network Pilot Study.” The Supporting Older Adults through Research Network shared, "Project ECHO Nutrition & Brain Health Training for Primary Care Providers: A Stakeholder-Engaged SOARNet Study - Results from a Preliminary Community Assessment Survey" and “SOARNet: Establishing a Practice-Based Research Network to Support Older Adults through Research.” Each year the IIMS eagerly welcomes PBRNs that are interested in cross collaborating or presenting their research to participate. Read more about this event HERE.

The Frenum Study: Is there an association between the maxillary frenum position and attachment and anterior caries in children aged 6 months - 3 years?

This STOHN study is a collaborative study with Texas A&M University School of Dentistry. Together the investigative team (Dr. Carolyn Kerins - PI and Professor Melanie Taverna, RDH - Site PI) are studying the association between the maxillary frenum position and attachment with anterior caries among children aged 6 months to 3 years. Data collection for this chart review study has been completed with 320 entries from 5 STOHN practitioners. A draft manuscript detailing research findings is underway. STOHN hopes to publish the work within the next few months.

Exploring Dental Practitioners and the South Texas Community Members Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Smokeless Tobacco Use and its Cessation Practices

This multi-level community-engaged research study is being conducted with the El Bari Community Health Center from San Antonio. Texas. The investigative team is comprised of Drs. Moshtagh Farokhi - School of Dentistry, Rahma Mungia - STOHN Director, and Fozia Ali - Family & Community Medicine. This study is utilizing focus groups to better understand the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surround smokeless tobacco among patients and providers. Findings will be used to produce culturally-tailored educational materials on cessation techniques to reduce smokeless tobacco use. Data collection is finished, with a total of 20 in-depth interviews with patients and 4 practitioner focus groups with 25 dentists/dental hygienists total have been completed thus far. Thanks to El Bari Community Health Center, who were essential for the recruitment of the patient participants. STOHN is actively writing the report and manuscript for the practitioner focus groups.

Spring Internship Program

STOHN Spring 2025 interns are Puneet Basra and Nomie Fairley, both undergraduate students from UTSA HCaP. The goal of the STOHN internship is to provide workforce development opportunities for local university students while expanding STOHN's research activities. To date, 48 students from 3+ universities have participated in this program. Furthermore, all of them have participated in manuscript development and/or research presentations.

For additional information about STOHN or its current research projects, please contact Caitlin Sangdahl - STOHN Research Coordinator at sangdahl@uthscsa.edu.

SOARNet was recently awarded a Community Engagement Small Projects Grant from IIMS in collaboration with Vidya Sharma from UTSA. The study, titled Project ECHO Nutrition & Brain Health Training for Primary Care Providers: A Stakeholder-Engaged SOARNet Study, will implement an intervention study to support practitioners serving older adults in South Texas to build their capacity around the relationship of nutrition and brain health. As the population of South Texas ages, the prevalence of dementia and other cognitive disorders is projected to increase rapidly. With this study, SOARNet will develop a timely and responsive resource for practitioners to equip their patients and families with culturally aligned, practical nutrition-based knowledge for better brain health. The study is collecting responses for the Eligibility Screening Form, with the goal of receiving 25 responses of primary care providers interested in participating in the sessions. If you are interested and a primary care provider who treats older adults, please fill out the survey HERE.

SOARNet is still building their partner member network and welcomes providers who serve the older adult population to complete this enrollment form HERE.

For additional information about SOARNet, please contact Caitlin Sangdahl - SOARNet Coordinator at sangdahl@uthscsa.edu.

South Texas Psychiatry PBRN is pleased to introduce Melissa Deuter, MD as our current director. Dr. Deuter is a board-certified psychiatrist in San Antonio, Texas. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and attended medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She completed psychiatry residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and served as Chief Resident in 2004. Dr. Deuter currently holds an appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UTHSCSA.

The South Texas Psychiatry PBRN is still recruiting new members! Benefits of joining include the opportunity to participate in collaborative research projects with a diverse group of researchers and clinicians, professional development across campus and community providers, Continuing Medical Education, and support amongst peers.

Behavioral Health clinicians and researchers interested in membership can fill out this information sheet, or contact Amber Meyer - South Texas Psychiatry PBRN Coordinator for more information at meyera1@uthscsa.edu.

The National Dental PBRN has launched a new study titled “Periodontal Adjunctive Antibiotics in Dental Practice” (PAAS). PAAS is a randomized clinical trial assessing the effectiveness of adjunctive antibiotics in treating periodontal disease. The study will investigate the effectiveness of Scaling and Root Planing (SRP) plus adjunctive antibiotics as compared to SRP with a placebo adjunctive for the treatment of generalized stage II-III, grade A-C periodontitis. Both recruitment and training are still underway, with 14 periodontists trained in the study, 2 currently completing research ready documents to be trained later on, and 10 active and recruiting patients.

UT Health San Antonio serves as the Southwest Regional site, which includes Texas, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In this study our role will be to recruit 13 periodontists, and each periodontist must recruit 16 patients. Nationally our goal is to recruit and train 39 periodontists and 544 patients to assess the effectiveness of SRP with adjunctive antibiotics compared to SRP without antibiotics (placebo) in patients with periodontitis.

The Community & Stakeholder Engagement Team at IIMS and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) are pleased to announce that five community-academic partnerships from South Texas have been awarded $5,000 grants as part of the Community Engagement Small Project Grants program.

This grants program provides seed funding to enable community-academic partnerships to develop activities that lead to the translation of research for public health benefit. Grants are available to newly developed or current partnerships with projects focused on research/assessment; education/training; and/or dissemination/communication of research results, program features or policy implications

Funds may be used to develop or expand collaborative projects in one or more of these areas:

1. Community-engaged research or assessment

2. Education or training

3. Dissemination of research results, program features, or policy implications

Read the Research Funding Announcement (RFA) HERE.

To apply, go to https://apply-uthscsa.smapply.io/ and search for “2025 IIMS Community Engagement Small Project Grants.” The application deadline is March 17, 2025

The IIMS, in partnership with the University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) Research Centers in Minority Institutions and Department of Biomedical Engineering will be held on April 9th, 2025. The IIMS is now accepting registrations and abstracts.

Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Time: 8:30AM – 3:30PM

Location: UT Health SA

7703 Floyd Curl Drive - Holly Auditorium Foyer & LSoM Room 309L

San Antonio Texas 78229

Guest speaker - Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD
PUTMB President

CEO, UTMB Health System
Professor, John Sealy School of Medicine
John D. Stobo, MD Distinguished Chair

Register HERE.>

This D&I Catalog is a listing of external D&I resources, provides a curated list of resource catalogs relevant to the conduct of Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) science. The resource catalogs gathered here include frameworks/theories/models, methods/measures, funding resources, practice resources, training, and health equity resources. Included resource catalogs are curated/sponsored by academic and non-profit organizations with expertise in D&I; contain multiple resources that are systematically organized; and are (in almost all cases) both open-access and actively maintained/updated.

Please note that the times and dates are subject to change.

• April 22nd from 10-11am
• July 15th from 10-11am
• October 21st from 10-11am

We invite you to submit your research articles, project updates, and success stories for our summer newsletter. This is a great opportunity to share your work with the broader PBRN community and inspire others. Please send your submissions to IIMS-CE@UTHSCSA.EDU by May 1, 2025.

The IIMS PBRN Resource Center serves as the operational base for developing new and supporting existing PBRNs in the South Texas region. The primary function of the PBRN Resource Center is to facilitate opportunities for collaboration between UT Health SA investigators and community clinicians.

This newsletter provides PBRN study updates, promotes cross collaboration, and informs readers about resources. Our intended audience includes PBRN directors, IIMS investigators, and IIMS leadership. We hope that you will enjoy this publication and that you will contribute to future news

IIMS PBRN Resource Center

E-mail: iims-ce@uthscsa.edu

Tel.: (210) 562-4087