Monthly Archives: April 2021

PT Student Jessica Smith Receives Belmont University Graduate Student Scholarship Award

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Jessica Smith, a current 3rd year student in the Belmont Physical Therapy program, has been awarded the Belmont University Graduate Student Scholarship Award.  The Award recognizes an exceptional student within all Belmont University graduate programs distinguished through outstanding academic performance as demonstrated through a consistent pattern of academic success coupled with the production of original scholarly research, writing, creative output and/or performance, as appropriate to the student’s discipline and graduate degree. This award is conferred in recognition of the recipient’s capacity to engage with insight, integrity, diligence, creativity, and reflection in professional activity relevant to the graduate degree sought, while demonstrating habits of mind reflective of open-mindedness, maturity, and generosity essential to becoming an inspiring professional in his or her chosen career path.

Jessica has gone above and beyond in her research efforts, and has served as a leader and inspiration in the area of scholarship within the DPT program.   As part of the requirements for the physical therapy program, students are placed in groups of 4-5 to conduct their research. The students then develop their review of literature, research question(s), determine the best methods to address their question(s), collect and analyze their data and then present their data at our research symposium, held in the fall semester of their third year. All of this work has to be performed at the same time the students are taking their course work (average of 20 hours per semester) throughout the program.  Students are connected with a faculty research mentor for their projects, and in this case, Smith worked extensively with Dr. Kevin Robinson, PT, DSc, OCS, on data collection related to the Nashville Ballet.

Dr. Robinson notes, “I have been working with the Nashville Ballet for the past 6 years, studying ways to identify performers who are at risk for musculoskeletal injuries during the course of their season. Jess was the lead member of her group. As the lead member, she took on the responsibilities of coordinating the data collection with the dancers and the Ballet staff, analyzing the 3 dimensional data and strength data that was collected, and she was the lead editor of the group paper.”

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Belmont University Announces Plans to Return to In Person Classes, Events for Fall 2021

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tulips in front of Belmont

In an email to current and incoming students on April 6, Belmont University announced plans to return to in-person classes this fall following more than a year of a combination of in-person, remote and hybrid courses due to the impact of the worldwide pandemic.

“We are nearing the conclusion of what has been one of the most unique and challenging years for our campus community and for higher education in general,” said Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher. “Thanks to the vaccine rollout and improving trends related to COVID data, we have every reason to be optimistic about providing a more traditional learning and living experience on campus this fall. And most importantly, the outstanding leadership of our Health Services team and truly extraordinary cooperative spirit and actions demonstrated by our students, faculty and staff this past year have shown our commitment to living together in community.”

Campus leaders will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and shift or evolve plans as needed based on trends and insights from local, state and federal public health officials. In addition, the University will implement recommended protocols as needed to ensure the health and safety of the campus community.

At this point, the campus expects to operate in-person classes at full or near-full capacity with more robust campus life experiences in place, including in person meetings, events and activities. The University is also making plans for a traditional fall schedule, allowing for observance of traditional holidays and Fall Break.

Belmont’s Spring 2021 semester concludes over the next two weeks with final class meetings and exams. The University will be hosting four separate, socially distanced in-person commencement ceremonies to honor graduates on April 22-23.

College of Pharmacy Hosts 5th Annual Antimicrobial Stewardship Symposium

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slideshow slide in Creech's presentation

Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy hosted the Fifth Annual Middle Tennessee Antimicrobial Stewardship Symposium on March 26 via Zoom. The virtual event attracted pharmacists, nurses, physicians, residents and students from across the country and Saudi Arabia to learn and discuss ways to work together as a medical community to improve appropriate antimicrobial use and mitigate risks. Featured speakers represented several states, and Vanderbilt’s Dr. Buddy Creech gave the keynote presentation – an update on COVID-19 vaccines.

Creech, MD, MPH, FPIDS is associate professor of pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He serves as director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, principal investigator of the NIH-funded Vanderbilt Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, and co-principal investigator of the CDC-sponsored Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Network. Dr. Creech’s research interests focus on the development and evaluation of new vaccines and therapeutics. He is currently leading COVID-related clinical trials at VUMC, including the evaluation of novel treatment options for hospitalized patients with COVID and trials of candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Dr. Montgomery Green, associate professor of pharmacy practice at Belmont, said this year’s symposium was particularly meaningful and important to host in light of the current pandemic. “Participants in the symposium are all those who have been on the front lines since the beginning and have led their institutions and practices response based on their expertise. We were delighted to still be able to offer the program this year and gather together in a virtual format,” Green said. “The symposium highlighted the work that has been done by healthcare practitioners in various practices in response to COVID-19, as well as provided education on the vaccine. We were also able to continue with the previous mission of the symposium to share innovations in current practice in non-COVID-19 related antimicrobial stewardship activities and collaborate with those in the field. With attendees from Oregon to Rhode Island to Florida and Saudi Arabia, the event was truly an international gathering.”

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PT Professor Receives 2021 Hall of Fame Award from American Physical Therapy Association of Tennessee

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Dr. Gail Bursch head shotGail Bursch, professor in Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy, was recently presented with the 2021 Hall of Fame Award from the American Physical Therapy Association of Tennessee. The award is granted to an APTA TN member who has a minimum of 25 years of continuous contribution to APTA TN as a clinician, educator, clinical educator or a combination of these roles.

Previously, Bursch became a national trainer for the APTA Credentialed Client Instructor Program and has taught more than fifty clinical instructor credentialing courses.

The recipient must also have a history of service to the APTA TN Board of Directors, contributions to the growth of the profession through the formal state, national or international presentations and demonstrated exceptional contributions to APTA TN and the profession.

Dr. Liotta-Kleinfeld Serves on Advisory Board for Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card

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2020 TN Report CardDr. Lorry Liotta-Kleinfeld, Professor of Occupational Therapy at Belmont, served as a collaborator on the 2020 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card.  Vanderbilt University Center for Research on Men’s Health recently released its 5th health report card filled with data to guide policy and practice for the improvement of men’s health.

In a video issued with the press release of the health report, Dr. Derek Griffith, director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Research on Men’s Health, shared that “the report card is meant to stimulate conversations, efforts, policies and practices to improve men’s health, not to just sit on the shelf.” He closes by sharing the goal of the report card is to recognize men’s health in addition to family members and other members of the Nashville community.

Dr. Liotta-Kleinfeld, who has served on the advisory board for the last three report cards, shared how hopeful she was that “the report card findings will be carefully considered and will lead to action planning and continued implementation of strategies to promote men’s health.” She emphasized the vital role that students who are enrolled in health-related fields play in promoting health in the future.

The report card, although focused on men’s health, also provides general information to the public on how to support the health and wellness of everyone. Read some of the key findings here.

Pharmacy Students Combine Artificial Intelligence and Personal Medicine

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medicine cabinet part 2 team on zoom

Belmont University College of Pharmacy third-year students Jacquese Reed, Raven McKinnie, Abel Alemeshet, Katarina Bielinski, Azmaan Lakhani and Ahmed Abogamiza took on the task of updating an Amazon Alexa skill for the Top 300 most prescribed drugs, in addition to incorporating recently approved drugs. Upon searching for a particular drug, a user will be given information for proper medication management. This includes storage information, administration techniques, common side effects and when to contact a primary care provider. Such a skill will revolutionize the way patients are able to receive information.

The first Alexa skill at hand was initially developed collectively by a previous informatics group at Belmont. The current informatics team was responsible for updating pertinent information for each medication in addition to creating a separate skill altogether.

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