Missouri CV Scholars Program
Congratulations to Cameron Conwell from Alton High School, who recently finished an intensive summer-long research internship as the inaugural Missouri CV Scholar Program—a collaboration between the Missouri Chapter of the American College of Cardiology Foundation (MO-ACCF) and the Young Scientist Program (YSP). And a warm kudos to Dr. Joshua Mitchell from Washington University School of Medicine who served as her mentor as Cameron aspires to become a Forensic Pathologist.
Cameron worked on a research study entitled: A Wearable Heart Patch Monitoring Device to Help Improve the Detection of QT Prolongation and Risk of Torsade de Pointes in Cancer Therapy Patients. Her key conclusions include:
- There were more females than males in the study.
- The arsenic trioxide patients withdrew early from the study because of skin irritation.
- Research takes time.
- She learned more about the heart’s electrical system, Cardio-Oncology, Torsade de Pointes and other fatal heart arrhythmias.
- She noted they are seeking more funding to enroll more patients and to expand the study.
- The team will take the lessons learned from this study to design a follow up study.
- There will be a complete analysis of T-wave changes to see if this analysis yields better results than the QT analysis.
Dr. Mitchell commented “Cameron has been a fabulous addition to the team this summer. She has been super motivated, hard working and dedicated throughout. She approached every task with a great attitude and accomplished a lot during her short time with us. We certainly hope to have the chance to work with her again in the future. It was great working with Cameron.”
About the Missouri CV Scholars Program
The Missouri CV Scholars Program is a partnership between the Missouri Chapter of the American College of Cardiology Foundation (MO-ACCF) and the Young Scientist Program (YSP) at Washington University in St. Louis. Funded in part through an ACC Chapter Section Grant in collaboration with the ACC Early Career Section, the program provides students from underperforming public high schools in St. Louis with an immersive summer-long experience in CV research by pairing them with Early Career Missouri ACC members who serve as mentors.
This partnership represents an opportunity to specifically target young talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue scientific careers through hands-on research and contact with active cardiovascular scientists who themselves are in the early stages of their careers —in the hopes that many of these students will ultimately enter the cardiovascular workforce.
The MO-ACCF is a non-profit extension of the MO-ACC Chapter that over the past 5 years has provided over 16 grants totaling $150,000 in support to Early Career members of the MO-ACC to support both basic science and clinical research. Each grant in the amount of $10K typically spans a 2-year period, with recipients presenting their work at the MO-ACC’s Annual Scientific Meeting at the end of their funding period.
The Washington University YSP is a non-profit outreach program that was founded and is run by graduate and medical students at Washington University in St. Louis. For over 30 years, the YSP has brought students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the inner-city school district into an immersive 8-week long scientific research experience at Washington University. Each student is offered specialized coursework focusing on developing skills in science communication and college/career preparation, as well as a stipend of $4,000 to offset the loss of potential income that many of these students give up by committing their summers to a research project.
