Consultation Connection: How Obdulia Covarrubias, Ph.D., worked with Juntos to Help Move Her Research Study Forward
By Kelly Hale, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Feb 05, 2025
Obdulia Covarrubias, Ph.D., currently works in the lab of Stefan Bossman, Ph.D. at the University of Kansas Medical Center and as the research focuses on developing nanotechnology for early detection of cancer and treatments. In the past couple of years, she started to focus on ovarian cancer, and she wanted to see how she could help the Latino community when it comes to early detection.
“As I first started trying to reach out, I had some doors shut, but finally someone told me about Juntos (Center for Advancing Latino Health) and I reached out,” she said. “Spending some time talking to them about what they do and how important it is to not just talk about what you’re doing but to actually do something for the community was really important for this project.”
Juntos set up a meeting with their community advisory board for Covarrubias to meet with some members who were either cancer survivors or caregivers. And that was an eye-opening moment for Covarrubias as the realities for the Latino community really hit home when it comes to access to healthcare and insurance.
And Juntos Director Mariana Ramirez, LMSW, helped her navigate the process starting with her presentation.
“One of the things I was asked is if I could present what I am doing in Spanish. All of my science has always been in English, but I presented in Spanish, and I think it helped for them to see someone who looks like them doing this type of research, and that I want to help,” said Covarrubias.
“It was so important for this group to hear this presentation in their native language because that helps address a critical gap,” Ramirez said. “You have to build trust, and this was a step in that direction.”
And the meeting provided insight into the lived experience from the community advisory board and brought up access issues.
“One of the concerns about this technology was ‘who’s going to have access to that screening?’ and ‘is it for everyone?’” Ramirez said. “And then for people without health insurance, would they have access to this technology? What needs to be happening to ensure that this science translates into equitable?”
“This was an eye-opening experience. I am in the lab and not really thinking about all of these challenges, like accessibility,” said Covarrubias. “This really helped me see the life impact. It is about more than just creating a technology but making it accessible to everyone and how can we have more diversity in our research. I look at this from a different perspective now.”
Covarrubias and Ramirez both hope this can be a first step in the journey to more equitable healthcare.
Kelly Hale
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
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