This is a resubmission application for Dr. David Turok's Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient- Oriented Research. Dr. Turok's global aims are to 1) reduce the U.S. rate of unintended pregnancy by significantly improving the quality of, and access to, family planning care for all women and families, 2) provide scientific data supporting practices that reduce unintended pregnancy, and 3) serve as a role model for, and mentor to, junior investigators devoted to patient-oriented research. His successful research addresses innovative ways to help women access highly effective reversible contraception (HER-C), including intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive implants. At the University of Utah he serves as the site-PI for the NICHD's Contraceptive Clinical Trial Network, the co-Director of the Fellowship in Family Planning, and the PI for his funded R01 supporting a RCT of two IUDs for emergency contraception. He mentors a large and growing cadre of clinical investigators from several disciplines. This application describes career development, mentoring, and research activities that would be executed in the next five years under protected time afforded by a K24 award. The research foundation of this application is the Salt Lake Highly Effective Reversible Contraception Initiative - Salt Lake (HER Salt Lake). This innovative community-wide program will assess the long-term social, health, and economic impacts of removing barriers to HER-C as well as by utilizing electronic media education to increase HER-C uptake. This patient-oriented research project will occur in an environment with limited Medicaid coverage and no state family planning Medicaid waiver. It will serve as a platform to accomplish career development goals and a setting for trainees to engage in mentored clinical research on their path towards successful, independent careers. Dr. Turok will accomplish the following career development goals during this project period: 1) expand his knowledge of population-based medicine, 2) improve his mentoring skills, and 3) strengthen his ability to disseminate scientific results. These activities will expand Dr. Turok's mentoring reach as he mentors over a dozen researchers over the five-year award period. He has ample access to mentees through his work with women's health researchers in his department as the director of resident research, with junior faculty in his Department as a mentor through the BIRCWH and WRHR programs, throughout the institution as the co-Director of the University of Utah KL2 junior faculty mentoring program, and with family planning researchers throughout the country via the Society of Family Planning. By providing salary support, the K24 award would enable Dr. Turok to significantly expand his active mentoring roles and productive patient-oriented research. Overall, these scientific and career development aims will remove barriers to, and improve use of, IUDs and contraceptive implants to decrease the 3 million U.S. unintended pregnancies each year.
Dr. Turok proposes a plan to use a community wide intervention to expand access to highly effective methods of contraception and study the social, health, and economic impacts of the program. He will use this as a platform to further develop his own research skills and expand his significant mentoring of aspiring clinical researchers to improve women's healthcare.
