MHRT Poster Session 2020

The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training (MHRT) program allows U.S. institutions to offer short-term international and domestic research training opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students from under-represented backgrounds. Funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the MHRT program is associated with the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The specific objectives of the program are to encourage students from under-represented backgrounds to pursue careers in science and biomedical, clinical, and behavioral health research and also to expose students to global health issues that relate to health disparities. The program also aims to enable collaborations between colleges/universities and international research programs.

Currently, the program offers international research sites in Thailand, India, Liberia, and domestic sites in Arkansas, Utah, Washington and Guam. This year due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, students conducted their research in Hawaii. UH has partnered with leading scientists and universities in these locations to serve as research mentors for MHRT students. Selected students spend 8-9 weeks during the summer at their International training sites under the guidance of their assigned in-country mentor and their UH mentor. Students engage in a variety of international and domestic health projects in community health and tropical medicine and infectious diseases. Additionally, the MHRT program provides the opportunity to share experiences with other trainees upon returning to Hawaii and provides supporting opportunities for students to publish their research and/or present their research findings at local and national conferences.

While conducting their summer research abroad, previous MHRT students also selected a cultural project to describe their experiences while living in a different country. This year, MHRT students conducted their research while sheltering in place in their own communities. To describe and document their unique experiences conducting summer research amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, students carried out “Photovoice and COVID-19 Projects”. Photovoice is an inquiry method used in community health and action research to document through photographs, people’s experiences on an issue, describe and reflect on the issue, and propose solutions. Tonight’s presentation includes MHRT students’ photovoice projects describing their lived experiences and impressions about COVID-19 related topics while conducting their summer research projects in their own communities while proposing solutions.