Three trainees in the Department of Pathology and Immunology have been awarded educational grants from the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC). Patricia Hernandez, MD, Resident in Clinical Pathology; Zita Hubler, MD, PhD, Resident in Clinical Pathology and the Physician Scientist Training Program; and Yanchun Lin, PhD, Clinical Chemistry Fellow, have all received funding for their projects addressing different issues in health services education.
Dr. Hernandez received APC’s Society of ’67 Pathology Trainee Project Grant in Health Services Education for her project, “Easy Complete Blood Count phone application for healthcare providers.” Complete Blood Count (CBC) tests are one of the most widely used diagnostic tests in the world, yet some healthcare providers need additional education and training to adequately interpret test results. Dr. Hernandez’s project involves creating an educational phone application tool called “Easy CBC” to help providers, particularly those in underserved settings, interpret CBC test results.
“The proposed Easy CBC application holds major relevance to health services education as it will serve as an educational tool and resource for healthcare providers who require further training or expertise to interpret CBC results and generate diagnoses. The application is innovative as high priority has been placed on accessibility during its planning and design,” Dr. Hernandez said.
Unlike many medical education phone applications, Easy CBC will be offered as a free resource. It will also be downloadable so providers can access all content offline or in areas with limited local internet. Finally, the content on the app will be available English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French to ensure wide accessibility across nationalities and cultures.
Dr. Hubler received APC’s Society of ’67 Pathology Trainee Project Grant in Health Services Education for her project, “Educational web application for intravenous fluid dilution of clinical samples.” Erroneous laboratory results due to the dilution of samples with intravenous (IV) fluids during collection is an all-too-common problem. Dr. Hubler’s project aims to create a new online education tool that increases awareness of IV fluid diluted results and educates providers about features to identify affected samples. The website will include an interactive Rshiny web app to simulate IV fluid dilution of basic metabolic panel results, an expert-curated discussion, and self-evaluation sections, all of which a provider can use to recognize IV fluid dilution of samples in tandem with laboratorians.
“I feel honored and excited to receive this award to support our pathology educational tool. The funds will allow us to expand upon our prototype and refine the product as a publicly available and free educational tool. By making the tool accessible, the project can have a broader reach, including national and international audiences,” Dr. Hubler said.
Dr. Lin received APC’s Society of ’67 Pathology Trainee Project Grant in Health Services Education for her project, “Improving the readability of patient education materials on laboratory testing using artificial intelligence.” As part of the project, Dr. Lin will develop and validate a new AI solution to generate easy-to-read patient education materials. The goal is to address the need for more readable materials to improve patient engagement and outcomes.
“Dr. Lin has a sincere interest in improving patient care. Her project aligns with her passion for improving health outcome. I believe her dedication to simplifying complex laboratory testing information into understandable patient-centric materials will improve patient comprehension and patient engagement in healthcare decisions,” said Ann Gronowski, PhD, Oree M. Carroll and Lillian B. Ladenson Professor in Clinical Chemistry, Pathology & Immunology and Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Division Co-Chief of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine.