Ross Gallabrese CONFERENCE — Dr. Amy Meister, president of UPMC community and ambulatory services and senior vice president of UPMC, and Dr. Joseph Pathakamuri, professor of biology and executive director of wellness initiatives at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, were among those who participated in Thursday's Clinical Research Conference.

STEUBENVILLE — Good things happen when major institutions work together to ensure that future generations of health care professionals are prepared well.

That was a major talking point Thursday, when the Franciscan University of Steubenville and Trinity Health System hosted their first Clinical Research Conference.

“A collaboration like this is important, when you consider there are two major institutions in Steubenville — one is the Franciscan University, and the other is Trinity,” said Dr. Joseph Pathakamuri. “This collaboration is really a priority, because the goal of both institutions is to help — that’s the nature of the mission. So, this collaboration helps us to train the residents well so they can serve the community well and give quality health care.”

Pathakamuri was speaking during a break in the all-day event that was held at the Pope Paul VI Conference Center inside the Christ the Teacher Academic Hall on the university’s campus. The school, he explained, has been actively involved in supporting graduate medical education for the medical residents at Trinity.

A professor of biology and executive director of wellness initiatives at the university, Pathakamuri said the institutions have been collaborating on various projects for several years.

“COVID-19 is when everything started,” he said. “Franciscan University came together with Trinity to help with all of the testing so they could their surgeries.”

That arrangement, in which Franciscan loaned equipment to Trinity, eliminated the need to send tests to a lab in Pittsburgh, and cut the waiting time for results by 24 hours, it was reported at the time.

“The COVID pandemic — that was incredibly cutting-edge,” said Dr. Benson Yeh, the director of graduate medical education at Trinity. “I have spent most of my career outside of Steubenville, and to hear about how Trinity had COVID testing within weeks of the start of the pandemic, well, that speaks to the relationship between the university and the medical center.”

Trinity’s residency program graduated its third class last June. Yeh said those programs offer important training for medical professionals.

“Trinity is relatively new to the academic environment,” he said. “Residents in training are doctors who are learning to be specialists in their respective areas. We have two training programs at Trinity — one is in emergency medicine and the other is in internal medicine. Our residents, upon completion of the program, are qualified to sit for the exams and to be board certified.”

Since the COVID collaboration, the institutions have worked together on several projects, Pathakamuri added. Those include Trinity’s sponsorship of artificial turf for an athletic field on the school’s campus, and its ability to provide opportunities for pre-med rotations and with student shadowing.

“We know that it is so important to put care back into the community,” said Dr. Amy Meister. “You need to foster the generations of the future. You need to grow the next doctors, nurses and technical support students. These collaborations between a hospital and a university are so important to make sure that we are mindful of creating the next generations of those who provide care.”

Meister is a senior vice president at UPMC and the president of UPMC community and ambulatory services. In October, CommonSpirit Health, Trinity’s parent company, signed a letter of intent to negotiate an agreement that would result in the integration of Trinity into the Pittsburgh-based UPMC system.

“An event like this helps to share the amazing work and collaboration that’s happened, thanks to the incredible science department and other faculty here at the university, along with the physicians, nurses and staff at the hospital,” Meister added.

Thursday’s conference included a series of faculty lectures in the morning, with judging of internal medicine case, emergency medicine case, hospital quality improvement and translational and epidemiological research posters being conducted in the afternoon.

“We set this up with graduate medical education,” Pathakamuri said. “What is happening is the fruition of all of the previous collaborations between Trinity and Franciscan, where all of the residents and Franciscan students who have been working with the residents are presenting their research, their posters and their scholarship work.”

The continuing success of those efforts is possible because the institutions work so well together.

“Franciscan students get pre-med shadowing. They will be in the hospital and around the flows, rotating among internal medicine and with emergency medicine doctors,” Pathakamuri added. “They are gaining valuable experience before they become a doctor, and they are seeing what it takes to become a doctor.

“We are helping with medical education,” he continued. “The residents come and do research here, and we help to conduct research and design research projects. It’s really a beautiful collaboration between the clinical world and the academic world.”