Linzi Hobbs believes that research is the foundation of medicine, and the soon-to-be physician says that’s why she’s so grateful for the capstone project required of her as an OUWB medical student.
Hobbs was awarded the Kenneth J. Matzick Embark Program Manuscript of the Year for her project done via OUWB’s Embark program.
Her poster is one of many now available on a special section of the OUWB website – the Class of 2022 Embark Capstone Colloquium.
Embark is a four-year longitudinal curriculum that consists of structured coursework in research design and implementation, compliance training, research communication, and scholarly presentation, with protected time to develop mentored projects in a wide-range of community and health-related settings.
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“Presenting the students’ work within this digital format allows sharing with family members near and far, as well as mentors across OUWB, OU, and Beaumont,” said Kara Sawarynski, Ph.D., co-director of Embark, associate professor, and vice chair, Department of Foundational Medical Studies.
“We hope that shared interests, collaborative ideas, and potential future Embark projects will develop through accessing the Embark webpages,” she added. “We hope that audience members, including our first- through third-year medical students, find viewing the Class of 2022’s work as inspiring as we do.”
To-date, work done by the graduating Class of 2022 has included 24 published manuscripts, 14 oral presentations, and 39 poster presentations.
The Class of 2022 Embark projects represent an “impressive set of research endeavors that address a wide-range of health issues throughout clinical practice, education, and the community,” according to Sawarynski.
“Graduates have pursued projects aligned with their passions, which shines through in their resilience and perseverance during these interesting times in the education arena,” she said. “They recognized project challenges in the face of COVID restrictions and were able to circumnavigate these challenges to a successful end.”
Hobbs, who recently matched in internal medicine at Medical College of Wisconsin, led a project entitled, “Pregnancy Increases Platelet Reactivity and Induces a Thrombogenic Platelet Transcriptome in Mice.”
Hobbs earned an undergraduate degree from Oakland University’s Honors College, and said that research wasn’t exactly new to her when she started at OUWB. However, her Embark project was the first time she took on a significant research project and had full control of it every step of the way.
She said the experience will help make her a better doctor.
“It takes a lot of critical thinking and analyzing the literature to synthesize the idea of the project,” said Hobbs. “Then, you’re using different tools to execute the plan and analyze data. That (approach) is really important for patient care…it’s very important to have all of these skills.”
With a belief that research is the foundation to medicine, Hobbs said “you certainly can’t advance medicine without doing a lot of basic research first.”
Not only that, but the project has opened doors for Hobbs. She presented the work at an American Society of Hematology conference — where she was awarded the prestigious ASH HONORS fellowship — and noted that “it was definitely a highlight for conversation during all of my residency interviews, as well.”
The Class of 220 Embark Capstone Colloquium can be found here.
For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, marketing writer, OUWB, at [email protected].
To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.
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