.jpg)
Clinical Research Coordinator
Inova Health System
The primary focus of our research at the Beatty Center for Integrated Research is obesity and chronic liver diseases, including hepatitis C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). I am the program manager for the Mental and Emotional Health Program (MEHP), which focuses on improving quality of life, reducing morbidity, and increasing function in patients with chronic liver diseases by substantially reducing the prevalence and impact of mental, emotional and cognitive dysfunction. The MEHP collaborates with the Outcomes Research Program to develop and conduct various prospective and cross-sectional research studies involving human subjects. Our studies involve the collection of medical history, clinical data, serum, cognitive, and functional measures such as grip strength, bioimpedence, and treadmill testing.
I have 4 years of experience as a research mentor for undergraduate students and have mentored 10 students thus far. My main responsibilities as a mentor are to assist in the development and implementation of student research projects utilizing clinical data from our existing MEHP studies. I teach students about the spectrum of NAFLD, the data we collect, and our primary research objectives. I engage them in discussion about their research interests to help them formalize a research question and develop an appropriate research plan. I am excited at the opportunity to continue to be a mentor for this program.
We are currently investigating cognitive performance and quality of life in individuals with NAFLD and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Studies using cognitive performance testing have demonstrated cognitive impairments in those with T2DM that exceed the rate of normal aging-associated cognitive decline. Given the shared metabolic abnormalities between individuals with NAFLD and T2DM, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance, our research objective is to determine if a correlation exists between cognitive performance, biological parameters, and patient-reported outcomes (e.g. fatigue and quality of life) in individuals with NAFLD.