UT Health Link PREP Jordan Ortman Wins Poster Award at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students
UT Health Link PREP scholar Jordan Ortman won “best poster award” at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. The conference took place virtually on November 10-13, 2021.
The winning poster is titled “The Interaction Between Patient Preferences, Expectancies, and Stigma on PTSD Treatment Outcomes.”
He is working with Dr. John C. Morin and The South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resilience, or STRONG STAR, a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research consortium funded by U.S. Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and evaluate the most effective early interventions possible for the detection, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions in active-duty military personnel and recently discharged veterans.
“This study essentially aimed to assess the influence of a couple key factors on the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CPT) for veterans and military members with PTSD,” Ortman said.
The key factors in the study are patient’s preferences of treatment modality (in-home treatment or telehealth or in-office treatment); patient’s expectancies of therapeutic gains; patient’s perceived credibility of the therapy; patient’s anticipated stigma.
“This research is important because it allows us to gain further understanding on how to increase the effectiveness of a widely used therapy for PTSD,” Ortman said.
Ortman explained that he greatly enjoyed the conference because it allowed him to meet and create connections with other young and upcoming researchers. He also enjoyed seeing what type of research people are doing today as it can give him insights into where research is heading in the future.
Currently, he is working on creating a manuscript based on the poster that he presented. After that, his goal is to get into a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program.
“My long-term goal is to become a professor and scientist-practitioner at a research-intensive university,” he said. “For me this means running a lab in which I get to train students on researching the development and refinement of treatments for psychopathology and PTSD.”
UT Health Link PREP is an NIH/NIGMS-funded postbaccalaureate program that provides mentored research training and professional development opportunities to eligible scholars underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences, as defined by the NIH, interested in obtaining a biomedical PhD degree. E-mail: prep@uthscsa.edu or visit the website for more details about the program.