Dr Benjamin King from the Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School and the University of Texas submitting author of the manuscript 'Optimal Delay Time to Initiate Anticoagulation after Ischemic Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation (START): methodology of a pragmatic, response-adaptive, prospective randomized clinical trial.' published in the International Journal of Stroke.
1. What inspired you towards neuroscience?
Unsurprisingly, I came to the field of neuro-epidemiology in a roundabout way, but the neurosciences were always a focus. My undergraduate program at Bard College provided the opportunity to partner with a team building a zebrafish neuroscience lab from the ground up. I was thrilled by my time studying the mechanism of addiction in this model, but I was also determined to move on to human subjects research. From there I went to work at inpatient psychiatric care facilities for a while, but never left the mind/brain question behind.
2. Why stroke?
As we all know, stroke results in a massive amount of disability and death. Public health training recognizes the benefits of addressing the largest drivers of disease burden such as this. Moving the needle even slightly in the prevention, care, or recovery from stroke can lead to inflated population health benefits. I was developing and managing research in emergency medicine when our first acute ischemic stroke trial came along. It didn’t take long before that became our focus.
I'm lucky to really love the work I do
3. What have been the highs so far?
I’m lucky to really love the work I do. There is something special that happens when a completely new research question gets introduced – usually when one of my clinician partners kicks down my door out of the blue – and we get to start solving a design question from scratch. There is also a great feeling when you get to see the work you do as an epidemiologist lead to changes in service delivery. Add to that any and every time I get to take a crack at a clean dataset …and there are too many highs to count.
4. What have been the lows?
Peer-reviewed rejections of grant proposals never seem to get easier. I’m proud of our wins, but I’m still learning to shake off the losses.
Peer-reviewed rejections of grant proposals never seem to get easier. I’m proud of our wins, but I’m still learning to shake off the losses.
5. How do you balance work life with the needs of home life?
My wife and I both work long hours. She has a background in social work, from before her law career, and does a good job of reminding both of us about the importance of self-care. Setting aside time for ourselves is key. It requires hard work at both ends of the spectrum.
My wife and I both work long hours. She has a background in social work, from before her law career, and does a good job of reminding both of us about the importance of self-care. Setting aside time for ourselves is key. It requires hard work at both ends of the spectrum.
6. Who are your most important mentors and how did you find them?
Dr. Truman Milling hired me to build the Emergency Medicine research program in Austin and we have been working and writing together ever since. It is a truly rare thing to find a clinician with his gift for writing and the technical aspects of research design. When Dr. Steven Warach relocated to Austin from his position as the head of intramural research at NINDS our team leapt at the chance to manage his research program. I have been benefiting from his leadership ever since. His perspective and insights have literally helped to shape the modern era of vascular neurology practice.
Dr. Truman Milling hired me to build the Emergency Medicine research program in Austin and we have been working and writing together ever since. It is a truly rare thing to find a clinician with his gift for writing and the technical aspects of research design. When Dr. Steven Warach relocated to Austin from his position as the head of intramural research at NINDS our team leapt at the chance to manage his research program. I have been benefiting from his leadership ever since. His perspective and insights have literally helped to shape the modern era of vascular neurology practice.
Finally, my epidemiologic training was mentored by some of the greatest methodologists in both epidemiology and biostatistics. My doctoral advisor, Dr. Steven Kelder, has shown me over and over that the field of epidemiology can be used to enact real, systemic changes by studying and testing solutions to complex problems. I first met Dr. Kelder during the master’s program, when I walked into his office unannounced and asked for a job… over a decade before asking him to be my advisor.
7. What are your most important collaborations and how have you built them?
As an epidemiologist I get to work in and around a lot of different specialties. One of my favorite endeavors is the collaboration built to connect our work in the tertiary care setting with housing and homelessness service agencies in our local community. In fact, my dissertation was a deep dive into the psychometric and validation testing of a popular vulnerability score measure used for housing resource prioritization. Honorable mentions go to our collaborators in the Lone Star Stroke Consortium, my partners in the Dell Medical School’s Department of Population Health and the Division of Psychology.
