Health Solutions research showcase builds connections and highlights employee success
Hassan Ghasemzadeh explains his research.
Over 200 attendees convened at the annual Faculty and Staff Research Day on Feb. 5 at the Health Futures Center to learn about current research endeavors and make connections across the College of Health Solutions.
“One of the goals of our Faculty and Staff Research Day was to showcase all the awesome work we’re doing in the College of Health Solutions in terms of translating our research into actionable knowledge to improve the health of the communities that we serve,” said Associate Dean of Research Matthew Scotch.
Two panel sessions were front and center, related to bridging clinical practice and research to advance health equity in Arizona and improving heat resilience and hydration. These discussions brought together speakers from Health Solutions and the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, as well as experts from Banner Health and the Valleywise Health System.
Attendees had the opportunity to experience the college’s extensive resources firsthand as they took part in interactive demonstrations and were guided through a tour of the unique Integrative Human Performance Lab.
The research poster showcase covered a wide variety of timely issues related to health and wellbeing, with more than 35 presenters shedding light on much needed topics such as healthy aging, chronic disease management and wearable technology. More research on wearable tech was presented at the Digital Health Summit on Feb. 14.
“It brings faculty and staff together. You get to know what everyone else is doing and that's quite amazing because our college is big and it can happen that you don't know what everyone else is doing,” said Associate Professor Hassan Ghasemzadeh.
Assistant Teaching Professor Rizwana Biviji, Assistant Professor Stephanie Marita Carpenter and Ghasemzadeh were each granted an award for their poster presentations on state Medicaid lactation support, optimization of digital just-in-time adaptive interventions and use of wearable technology for monitoring freezing of gait in Parkinson’s patients, respectively.
When asked what she most looked forward to at Faculty and Staff Research Day, Carpenter echoed Ghasemzadeh’s excitement to see what others are working on. Having joined the College of Health Solutions in 2023, Carpenter is glad to have the opportunity to continue meeting people and establishing new research connections.
“I think just hearing more about all the exciting initiatives going on all the time at the College of Health Solutions. There are always new and exciting things,” said Carpenter. “I only arrived here about a year and a half ago, so I’m newer to ASU. There were some faculty members who I actually hadn't met yet outside of Zoom and even then, we were in large meetings. So, you're not really getting to talk with each other. And I was able to chat with a few of them about maybe having more conversations to discuss future research we could do together.”
With additional opportunities to build a research community through the upcoming Student Research Symposium on May 2, visiting faculty and other talks throughout the year, 2025 is poised to be a time of fruitful collaboration and great strides in health care fields.