The Cape Fear Research Consortium (CFRC) gathered education, healthcare and military research leaders at Cape Fear Hoke Hospital on Wednesday Jan. 24 for their first meeting since 2023. 

The CFRC was established in 2017 with the goal of bringing community leaders and  researchers from across different fields together to network and collaborate on research that matters to their community. 

To kick off the meeting, guests heard from:

• Jessica Molina, Senior Clinical Research Coordinator for the Department of Clinical Investigation at Womack Army Medical Center.
•  Chief Operations Officer for Cape Fear Valley Health System Daniel Weatherly and
•  Dr. Hershey Bell, founding dean of the highly anticipated Methodist University and CFVH School of Medicine Dr. Hershey Bell, who also shared early test renderings of the building plans still in consideration. 

Research leaders also got a chance to introduce themselves to the room and provide insight on their services and organizations including:

• Steve DeLellis, Executive Director of the Fort Liberty Research Institute
• Scott Dorney, Executive Director of the NC Military Business Center 
• Nat Robertson, the President and CEO of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. 

One of the meeting highlights was the announcement of the upcoming CFRC’s Annual Research Symposium which will be taking place on May 2, 2024 at the Iron Mike Conference Center on Fort Liberty. 

Early plans for the Symposium are underway with organizers expressing the need for abstracts, event sponsors and judges. 

“I want to clarify judging. A lot of people are asking, ‘Do I have to physically be on site?’ A lot of my professors are asking me that question, ‘Must I be there the day of?’ We would love for you to be but you do not have to be to be considered as a judge. It can be a virtual commitment only,” shared Molina. “You just have to let us know that all you can commit to is a virtual component and that's okay.” 

As of Wednesday, Jan. 24 there were 25 judges signed up out of the 36 goal total. 

“We are seeing a lot of judges that are saying they've never judged for the symposium before. That means we're reaching the right people, so please continue to encourage if you have someone who's shown some internet or who may just only be able to read some abstracts and give some opinions on those, that’s okay too,” continued Molina. 

Registration for the Symposium is currently expected to open in early March and notification for accepted abstracts will be sent no later than March 22, 2024. 

For more information on how to get involved or submit your work, you can go online here or contact Jessica Molina at jessica.n.molina3.civ@health.mil. 

Following information about this year’s Symposium, the floor was opened to discuss any collaborative, voluntary research topics that may be underway in the next year. 

The subject of suicide among warfighters, led by COL. Ty Harris with the Womack Army Medical Center, was a hot topic of interest, which sparked a discussion on how and what data could be tracked to continue using the Medical Assessment Readiness System (MARS), a Statistical Outcomes Trajectory Assessment (SOTA) database currently accessed by the Womack Army medical system. Additional conversations about the implications and widespread use of that database in relation to research followed.