May 2026

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A full house gathered on Friday, April 24, 2026, for the annual Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute’s (HHRI) Research Symposium and Poster Session. This was a hybrid event, held in person at Hennepin Healthcare's Clinic & Specialty Center, Stillman Room, and on Microsoft Teams from 1-3 PM CDT. The symposium kicked off with in-person poster presentations and networking. It included a leadership update from Kirsten Johansen, MD, HHRI President.

The leadership update was followed by presentations from researchers who are focused on data-centered research. Investigators Justine Mrosak, MD; Allyson Hart, MD, MS; and Dr. Kirsten Johansen spoke on their current and ongoing research.

• Dr. Justine Mrosak shared how the REDAC team is expanding access to data, analytics, and informatics support across Hennepin Healthcare and HHRI.

• The HHRI Transplant Research team, led by Dr. Allyson Hart, highlighted how data‑driven research is being used to address one of transplant medicine’s most pressing challenges: the gap between organ supply and patient need.



• Dr. Kirsten Johansen presented highlights from the 2025 United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Annual Data Report, offering a national snapshot of trends in chronic kidney disease (CKD), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), dialysis, and transplantation.

Awards & Honors

Mpls.StPaul Magazine's 2026 Rising Stars

Please join us in congratulating Kerry Sheets, MD, who was named one of the 2026 Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Rising Stars. You can see the full list of Hennepin Healthcare's Rising Stars here.

Research Awards - Congratulations!

Please join us in congratulating the following researcher who received an National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Project Grant (R01) to support their health-related research and development.

Spotlight

SRTR Debuts New Patient-Friendly Website & Dial Icons

New Breast Cancer Research Shows Tumors Can Be Removed More Successfully, With Fewer Follow-up Surgeries, Using New Technology

Recognizing Excellence

Recent Presentations

• Cory Schaffhausen, PhD, presented the organ transplant journey through the lens of an interactive subway map at the 2026 Pediatric Transplant Conference. This map helps families and caregivers better navigate the transplantation journey by allowing for multiple entry points, better side-by-side comparisons, and informed decision-making. For a full breakdown of this interactive tool, watch the YouTube video.

• Kristina Burrack, PhD, recently traveled to Killarney, Ireland, for the scientific conference, Keystone Symposia: Vaccinology: A new era in immune-driven vaccine design. She presented a poster on "Leveraging immunotherapies to enhance T cell responses to Plasmodium vaccination," which could lay the groundwork for future malaria vaccinations.

Recent Publications

• David Darrow, MD, MPH, co-authored a new publication in the Journal of Neural Engineering on "Metric validation for detection of delayed and directed coupling." The study evaluates which tools best capture how brain regions communicate. Understanding these connections is the key to studying brain disorders such as epilepsy, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The team found that multivariate transfer entropy produced the most reliable results, but it is too resource-intensive for everyday practical use.

• Gretchen Buchanan, PhD, LMFT, LADC, co-authored an article published in Implementation Science Communications on "A practical-based implementation strategy bundle for integrating behavioral health in primary care: a matrixed multiple case study." The study explores the effects of utilizing integrated behavioral health (IBH) in primary health care settings.

• Gretchen Buchanan, PhD, LMFT, LADC, jointly authored a publication in the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy on "Moving toward integrated care for perinatal opioid use disorder and mental health in an urban safety-net hospital: A formative implementation evaluation." The investigation concluded that moving to an integrated model of care is the first step to providing comprehensive care to patients with perinatal Opioid Use Disorder.

• Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, and Peter Bodurtha, MPP, co-authored a publication in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Public Health and Surveillance on "Population Estimates and Hypertension and Diabetes Prevalence: Cross-Sectional Quantitative Study Comparing Electronic Health Record–Derived Counts, Census, and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates." The study used different data sources (Minnesota census information and Electronic Health Records (EHR) against the CDC's EHR) to estimate rates of diabetes and hypertension, which yielded similar results across larger geographic regions, but further testing methods are needed for smaller geographic areas where data varied more.

• Anne Murray, MD, MSc; Behnam Sabayan, MD, MSc, PhD, FAHA; Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc; Katherine Diaz Vickery, MD, MSc; and HHRI staff, Jennifer Michelle McKay, and Mihad Semir, MS, co-authored a recent publication in Neurology Open Access on "Stroke Care and Outcomes Among Patients Experiencing Homelessness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." The study explores the link between homelessness and an increased risk of stroke due to a lack of access to preventative care. It uses past study results to summarize the currently available evidence.

• Anne Murray, MD, MSc, co-authored a JAMA Open Network article on "Cognitive Decline Preceding Incident Cardiovascular Events in Older Adults." The study examines whether cognitive decline begins before a cardiovascular disease (CVD) event in older adults. Findings show that individuals who later experienced a CVD event showed faster decline starting three to eight years earlier, suggesting these changes may be a precursor to an increased cardiovascular risk.

• In a recent study published in the Injury Prevention journal, co-authored by researchers Derek Lumbard, MD, FACS; Rachel Nygaard, PhD; and data scientist Charly Vang, MPH, on “Prior violent injury and subsequent homicide involvement: evidence from a linked trauma registry study,” it’s been discovered that hospitals and Level 1 Trauma Centers like Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) are key players in violence prevention. Findings show that 1/50 patients admitted to HCMC for violent injury go on to be victims of homicide or perpetrate a homicide themselves.  

In the Media

• Trauma surgeon Derek Lumbard, MD, was interviewed on MPR News about the violence prevention program, Next Step, and the new study by HCMC and The Violence Prevention Project recently published in the Injury Prevention journal that showed a link between prior violent injury and homicide involvement.

• Behnam Sabayan, MD, MSc, PhD, FAHA, was recently interviewed in Physicians Weekly on how "Homelessness Affects Hospital Care for Stroke." Dr. Sabayan discussed the link between persons experiencing homelessness, the increased risk of stroke, and the decreased likelihood of receiving clot-dissolving medication therapy, intravenous thrombolysis.

• David Darrow, MD, MPH, was interviewed on the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons' YouTube webinar on "Trigeminal Neuralgia, Orofacial Pain & Surgical Guidelines," with fellow scientists Gary Klasser, DMD, and Michael D. Staudt, MD, MSc. They discussed the overlap of neurological pain, dental pain, medication, and patient-centered care.

• McKnight's Long-Term Care News covered the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study data recently published in JAMA Network Open. The story, "Deterioration in cognitive function may be a precursor to heart disease in older adults, study finds," reported that “Older adults who experienced cardiovascular disease events experienced lower cognitive function between three and eight years before the event, compared with those without CVD.” Anne Murray, MD, MSc, is the ASPREE Principal Investigator.

• Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, was interviewed by America's Essential Hospitals on "Why Public Health Matters: MN EHR Consortium." The MN EHR Consortium is an online database that confidentially aggregates the healthcare data of nearly all Minnesotans across the 11 statewide healthcare systems. The consortium was founded in 2020 to track COVID diagnoses/testing and later repurposed to track substance abuse trends, chronic health conditions, and more.

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