Dr. Maggie E. Jones-Carr is a post-doctoral trainee at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation. Dr. Jones-Carr works under the mentorship of Dr. Jayme Locke, who is supported under a TL1 KUH PRIME training grant.
Dr. Jones-Carr is a general surgery resident from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she will return to finish her general surgery training after her post-doctoral fellowship. She will then complete a clinical abdominal transplant surgery fellowship, with the ultimate goal of being a transplant surgeon-scientist.
Her specific work at UAB focuses on designing a novel approach to evaluate the role of implicit bias in medical decision-making as it pertains to kidney transplantation waitlisting. In the meantime, she has worked on several other projects, with topics ranging from surgical education, Artificial Intelligence in medicine, porcine xenotransplantation, novel pre-clinical human models, to disparities in kidney care. She is also working toward her Master’s in Public Health with a focus in Health Policy and Organization, which she plans to leverage to create more equitable organ allocation policies. With such a wide variety of accomplishments, we asked Dr. Jones-Carr about her experience as a scientist.
Q: Do you have any particular experiences, interests, or passions that have shaped you as a researcher?
A: Transplantable organs are a finite resource, and gender and race disparities persistently affect who has access to this lifesaving treatment. Creating a system that treats patients fairly is what keeps me up at night. Implicit bias is persistent in the world around us, shaping many of the decisions we make. I seek to show how this impacts the patient-level decisions clinicians make, leading to systematic inequities.
Q: How did you come to specialize in your field of research?
A: As a clinician, I became interested in transplantation when I was an intern on a busy transplant surgery rotation. Transplant science combines medical complexity, technical difficulty, collaboration, and innovation into one field—it includes all of the best parts of medicine. I was hooked from the get-go.
Q: What advice would you give to undergraduate scholars who want to get more experience with research?
A: Mentorship is key. Find an undergraduate mentor that you look up to, that you could see yourself working well with on a topic that you find interesting. My college mentors shaped the scientist I am today, and I keep in touch with them still, even though the topic couldn’t be further than what I study now. I researched organic chemistry back in college, and now I study disparities in kidney care.
Q: What is one thing you wish you could tell your younger self about academia/research/life in general?
A: Don’t sweat the small stuff. One grade does not define you as a learner or a person (looking at you, C in freshman calculus!). Take time to cultivate your personal relationships with your friends and family; you’ll need to rely on them more than you think.
Q: What thought/philosophy/principle has helped you during difficult times?
A: Being a clinician who affects my patients in a positive way is the fundamental goal of my entire professional career. I study, learn, and work so that I may help people in their most vulnerable state: illness from end-organ failure.
Q: How do you hope your findings will impact the broader community? In other words, what do you hope to achieve with your current research?
A: I hope to use my current research to influence more equitable organ allocation and transplantation policies, such that patients who need a transplant can have this lifesaving treatment irrespective of their race or sex. I hope that my work is a building block for combatting implicit bias in medical decision-making.
Q: What are you most looking forward to being part of the KUH PRIME TL1 #KUHmmunity?
A: Being a member of the UAB community, as under the umbrella of the larger KUH grant, is a fantastic way to garner mentorship, obtain diverse education, and grow as a professional. Go Blazers!