Cheng “Alice” Chen, a graduate student in the department of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy in the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, was named as one of 10 finalists in the UF Three Minute Thesis Competition. Chen’s virtual presentation compared the risk of opioid-related adverse events, traumatic injury, and long-term opioid use between patients with gabapentin-opioid therapy versus patients with opioid-only therapy. Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant approved by FDA for neuropathic pain and has been increasingly co-prescribed with opioids to reduce opioid consumption. Chen found the incidence of opioid-related adverse events and traumatic injury are higher in patients in the gabapentin-opioid group than those in the opioid-only group; and did not find differences in their incidence of long-term opioid use.
“I competed in the Three Minute Thesis competition, because I am eager to disseminate my research and have more people learn about pharmacoepidemiology,” Chen said. “Few people are familiar with this field, but pharmacoepidemiology plays a vital role in evidence-based medicine and is closely related to daily life.”
Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland in Australia. It challenges graduate students to make a compelling presentation on their thesis topic and its significance in just three minutes. The competition helps students develop academic, presentation and research communication skills and the capacity to explain their research to a non-academic audience.