We caught up with Matthew Postolowski, COM ’22 and Roshan Patel, COM ’22 after their recent success at the Student Research & Scholarship Forum held at the MOA’s Midwinter Symposium:
Tell me about your research
The purpose of our project was to identify the common barriers to communication that exist between individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities(IDD) and their healthcare providers in Maine. We designed a mixed methods survey and distributed it to caregivers at MACSP, Woodfords Family Services, Morrison Center, and Spurwink. The findings primarily demonstrated that caregivers want healthcare providers to spend more time directly interacting with IDD patients, regardless of the individual’s ability to comprehend their provider. We strongly believe that developing a stronger understanding of the barriers to communication that exist within the IDD community is vital to increasing patient outcomes, as well as decreasing systemic health disparities within the community.
What was it like presenting your research at the MOA?
The MOA poster forum was a great opportunity to share our findings with other COM students, as well as practicing providers in the community. We were both excited to help foster a conversation about improving care for patients with IDD. The judges, students, and other attendees were engaged and provided great feedback.
Do you remember any specific questions you were asked during the poster presentation? What were some of your thoughts as the judging was taking place?
In addition to specific questions about our methods and results, we were asked about how our findings can be applied to other medically underserved populations. There are numerous studies that show engaging directly with patients, regardless of their comprehension, can have a significant positive effect on health outcomes. Our results support the established research and can be applied to nearly any interaction healthcare providers have with patients.
We were also asked by one of the judges how working as a team impacted our research. I think we both found that having each other to rely on throughout the process (grant writing, IRB approval, community outreach, and presenting) relieved a lot of the stress of managing a research project, and also made the project more enjoyable to work on. Our advice for students interested in getting involved in research is to find friends who are passionate about a topic and work together to design and execute your project.
When did you find out that you had won the Original Research category? What was your reaction?
Due to the weather, we both left before the reception and awards ceremony. Dr. Thieme, our project mentor, messaged us with the good news later that evening. We were both surprised and delighted that we won the original research category. We believe that the judges appreciated our plan to use the research to facilitate a conversation on campus through IPEC (Interprofessional Education Collaborative). We would advise students who are actively working on a research project, or those interested in getting involved in research, to figure out how they can use their project to positively impact patients and the community.
Matthew Postolowski, OMS-II & Roshan Patel, OMS-II presenting their research poster at the MOA Student Research & Scholarship Forum