October 2012 Newsletter

Public Service and Advocacy

Taylor Starr, D.O., M.P.H. is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and our newest faculty member in the Division of Adolescent Medicine. During her fellowship, Dr. Starr began research aimed at developing web based, interactive educational tools for providers who care for adolescents. As part of her educational modules, she wanted to incorporate a set of educational videos that are widely used to train providers in the adolescent reproductive health field. She needed first to conduct research to ask adolescents to evaluate the videos. All the better if teens could identify what specific characteristics and for what reasons the teaching videos were hitting, or falling short of the mark, so that Dr. Starr would know how to design well informed teaching tools. Dr. Starr is continuing this work as an Assistant Professor in our Division of Adolescent Medicine, utilizing an interactive team with many different skill sets and a gaggle of adolescents and providers willing to test the intermediate versions. Who says research is a solitary enterprise? And when public service, education, and advocacy are informed by evidence acquired through research, they are much more likely to effectively address what is a real-life, practical problem.