Over the last four years, medical research at St. John’s has grown from 12 industry-sponsored clinical trials to over 70 studies with investigational drugs and medical devices throughout St. John’s Clinic and St. John’s Hospital. Most recently, important partnerships have developed between St. John’s and Missouri State University that will allow for translational research (the clinical application of scientific medical research, from the lab to the bedside) at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center. In addition, St. John’s will be working with allied health programs at Missouri State to foster and promote student research projects at St. John’s. These projects will meet the needs of both the students and our physicians by attempting to answer important questions related to health care and outcomes research.

Three St. John’s Clinic physicians were awarded research grants by the St. John’s Medical Research Institute Board of Directors.  Dr. Wendall Goodwin plans to conduct a phase II oncology clinical trial, while Drs. Wendell Scott (Eye Specialists) and Roger Huckfeldt (Trauma Surgery) will be working on medicine and device research with scientists and graduate students at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center.    

October 2006:
St. John’s Health System has agreed to be a senior corporate affiliate with Missouri State University’s Center for Applied Science and Engineering (CASE).  St. John’s and Missouri State will work with other affiliates at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center research facility.  As an affiliate, St. John’s will pay a yearly fee, and in return have access to state-of-the-art lab facilities and specialized scientists.  The partnership is expected to attract physicians who are looking for a place to practice and research simultaneously.  Among some of the first projects are nano-engineered tissues for new corneas, and a new type of sensor for monitoring trauma patients. 

Shachar Tauber, M.D. (Ophthalmology) and colleagues published an article in Ophthalmology titled “The RPS Adeno Detector for Diagnosing Adenoviral Conjunctivitis”.  The purpose of the study was to compare the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the RPS Adeno Detector™ with that of standard methods for detecting and diagnosing adenoviral conjunctivitis (pink eye).  The Detector demonstrated sufficient sensitivity and specificity to be used in the physician’s office in detecting pink eye. St. John’s Clinic-Eye Specialists was one of only four US sites that participated in this clinical trial.

September 2006:
A research collaboration between St. John’s Children’s Nursery and Missouri State University Computer Information Systems Assistant Professor Sheryl Brahnam has led to a recently published article in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.  The article describes how face-recognition technology can be utilized to identify pain in newborns.  There are currently a number of instruments developed to assist health professionals in identifying infants’ pain, but each of them has flaws.  In the current study, facial expressions of 26 neonates were photographed experiencing the pain of a heel lance and a variety of other stressors.  The photos were then run through a series of databases and algorithmic technologies for face classification.  The article, entitled “Machine recognition and representation of neonatal facial displays of acute pain”, ranked in the top 25 papers in artificial intelligence in medicine.

 July 2006:
Gregory Ledger, M.D., Medical Director of St. John’s Medical Research, was one of the highest enrollers in a national clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of different medications in the treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.  Results of this research were presented at an international medical conference in May of 2006.

 June 2006:
Three physician-initiated research projects were approved by St. John’s Institutional Review Board.  Allan Weston, M.D. (Gastroenterology) will be researching the role that genes may play in the development of Barrett’s Esophagus (a condition that sometimes results from Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and may lead to esophageal cancer).  James Gessler, M.D. (Ophthalmology) will begin evaluating the effectiveness of differing strengths of  lens implants following cataract surgery.  Scott Estrem, M.D. (ENT) will be comparing two different drugs in the treatment of swimmer’s ear.

May 2006:
Sami Khoshyomn, M.D. (Pediatric Neurosurgery) was been awarded a $30,000 grant for hydrocephalus research from the Madi Fund.  Hydrocephalus is a buildup of excess fluid within the brain that is present at birth.  Without prompt surgical treatment (implanting a shunt), the pressure inside the baby’s head will build up and can cause brain damage. His collaborative research with the Biology Department at Missouri State University will assess whether an experimental coating on a certain type of shunt implanted during surgery will reduce the risk of infection.

April 2006:
Robert Sonnemaker, M.D. (Nuclear Medicine) has been approved to join in a nation-wide phase II clinical trial evaluating the safety of a myocardial ischemia imaging agent.  This agent may reveal the presence or absence of altered fatty acid metabolism due to the myocardial ischemia.

March, 2006:
Shachar Tauber, M.D. (Ophthalmology) and his colleagues at Yale University published an article in the Journal of Refractive Surgery.  The case report described in the article is about an individual who had inflammation of the cornea due to bacteria following routine LASIK surgery.  Such a complication is rare, but the authors suggest that ophthalmologists be prepared to begin aggressive antibiotic therapy when microbial cornea inflammation follows LASIK.

February 2006:
In 2005, St. John’s Clinic-Eye Specialists was one of only four sites in the US that participated in a pivotal trial of the Adeno Detector^TM.  This device recently received FDA approval for the detection of pink eye.