News

Dustin and Beth Osborne Initiate Scholarship for Interventional Radiology Professionals

To support research at The University of Tennessee Medical Center, Dustin Osborne, PhD, Assistant Professor of Radiology, and his wife, Beth, Interventional Radiology Supervisor, have initiated a scholarship program to be awarded to a nurse or technologist in the Interventional Radiology group that will cover expenses to a relevant national conference.

The Osbornes believe that travel to national conferences is critical to enabling advancement within a field and allows medical professionals to grow by experiencing the methods practiced and research performed by other clinical teams across the nation.

Dr. Osborne said that although a wide range of conferences exist for technologists and nurses, these professionals are often not able to participate because of limited funds and other restrictions. He noted that the research goals of the UT Graduate School of Medicine cannot be accomplished without strong ties to its partner, University Health System, Inc. In order to facilitate travel to conferences, the Osbornes started the research travel fund, an annual award that will reimburse up to $3,000 of travel expenses including airfare, hotel and conference registration fees.

Awards will be determined based on the applicant's acceptance of conference abstracts. Should multiple abstracts be accepted, winning submissions will be determined by a local judging panel that will assess the quality and relevance of each abstract submitted.

"We hope that interest in this program will grow and eventually be expanded to more individuals and to other groups within the hospital," Dr. Osborne said. "It is also our hope that through this program we expand research efforts to new groups and work to further solidify relationships that may result in future breakthroughs and improvements in the quality of patient care at The University of Tennessee Medical Center."

May 2, 2013