Education Spotlight April 2022

The Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) recently reapproved CIVIC - Portland as a selected site for the Advanced Fellowship in HSR&D!

Portland was one of 14 HSR&D Centers of Innovation (COINS) selected to receive funding through a competitive review process. The fellowship program is now incorporating curriculum based on the Learning Health Systems Competencies. The Learning Health System is a value-based care framework that centers around systematically gathering evidence and applying the most promising evidence to improve care.

CIVIC New Fellow Highlight - Qian Leng, MD, MPH

Qian grew up in China and Arizona and completed her MD/MPH at Harvard and residency in internal medicine at OHSU. Dr. Leng is passionate about yoga, meditation, getting outdoors, and spending time with her partner and their 4-year-old. Qian volunteers as a yoga teacher for a residential addiction treatment facility and mentors medical students at Western University.

Prior to becoming a fellow, Qian worked on a review paper on cultural competence among healthcare professionals in residency, a study on treatment of depression among Asian Americans during her MPH, and cancer biology research during her undergrad. Currently, she is working with Don Sullivan to write up a study on yoga as an intervention to treat depression among lung cancer patients and their partners. Qian is also planning a paper on home based primary care with Sam Edwards and working on a project to highlight mental health disparities among pregnant women during the pandemic with Alice Graham at OHSU.

Qian believes strongly in the power of each individual to potentiate their own mental and physical health through practices like yoga and mindfulness. She believes that these practices are cost effective and can help alleviate health disparities and make a difference in substance abuse treatment. The goals of her current research are to learn about the research areas she’s interested in, develop skills in data analysis and paper writing, and ultimately to apply for her own grant funding to run studies in these areas. Qian would also like to design some pilot studies on using yoga as an intervention for prevention and improving sleep among elderly veterans with dementia. She would also like to research how to improve the lives of women veterans during and after pregnancy.

Qian believes health disparities research is important, and as an Asian American, she would like to see more research that includes people like her. This is a career change for Qian after having been a hospitalist for the past 8 years. She would encourage people who have an interest in research to feel comfortable pursuing it when they are ready to do so at a point that makes sense not only for their career but for their families and financial goals. It’s never too late!

CIVIC New Fellow Highlight - Laura Coco, PhD, AuD

Laura is clinically trained as an audiologist, and her research focuses on improving access to and uptake of hearing aids for older adults. She is multilingual (English, American Sign Language, and Spanish). Outside of work, Laura likes to swim laps, ride bikes, hike, and travel. She is a cat Mom to Soozie and recently got married. One of her volunteer roles in Tucson, AZ was with Casa Alitas, a shelter for migrant families. Laura just moved to Portland in August from Tucson, AZ.

For Laura’s dissertation, she conducted a mixed-methods study examining the feasibility of a community-engaged teleaudiology service delivery model. It included a sub-study training Community Health Workers to support with the hands-on aspects of telehealth-delivered hearing aid fittings. Both of those studies used a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, which involves researchers and community members working together collaboratively. Laura is also interested in the effects of health literacy on healthcare access and has done work evaluating the reading level of patient-reported outcome measures. Currently she is working with her mentor, Dr. Kathleen Carlson, on the impacts of tinnitus among Veterans. Laura is also beginning to explore rural Veterans’ access to hearing care.

There are a number of psychosocial, physical, and mental consequences to unaddressed age-related hearing loss. With early intervention, older adults can improve or maintain good communication with their friends and family and stay socially engaged – which are important aspects of healthy aging. Laura is very happy to be at CIVIC and appreciates you taking the time to learn more about her!

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