“Look for Good Mentors”: Emma Tayloe and FARP

This Q&A with Emma Tayloe is part of our series on the student research opportunities with CHER. Emma  was in the FIRST program, a three-year M.D. program. She’s currently a first-year family medicine resident at UNC.

Student research is part of CHER’s core values. In particular, it’s part of our core value of meaningful work. One way we create meaning in our work is by promoting research excellence through education. Sometimes that looks like teaching a course. Sometimes it looks like co-presenting programs with our partners. And sometimes, it looks like mentoring students as they get started with research.

Student researchers may be enthusiastic or unsure. They may have grand plans or the first spark of an idea. No matter how students start, they can find mentors, collaborators, funding and support in CHER.

Emma Tayloe ‘24 (MD) started with a simple question. Eventually, she found mentors in and beyond CHER. Those mentors helped her shape her first question into a robust research project.

Learn more in this Q&A with Emma.

Where did the idea for your project came from?

I worked at a non-profit clinic that served uninsured patients in Charlotte. One part of my job was helping patients complete applications for financial assistance programs.

I learned some of the challenges that patients experience with these programs, and also how important the programs are for healthcare access.

When I got to UNC as a medical student, I was interested in learning more about how well UNC’s financial assistance program was meeting the needs of patients.

I initially just tried to learn more by reaching out the UNC financial assistance office directly. I even got some faculty support in trying to reach a representative who could answer some basic questions. Unfortunately, the financial assistance office refused to meet with me or answer most of my questions.

A friend and classmate of mine, Meera Nagaraj (who had a similar gap year experience) and I met with Dr. Gaurav Dave and Dr. Sue Estroff.

Together, we decided to pursue a student-led research project about the experience of patients applying for financial assistance.

Where’s your project now? What is the team doing now?

We have finished conducting and coding interviews and are drafting an article to submit for publication.

We have been so lucky to have support from CHER faculty, especially because all of the people involved in the process have had minimal experience in conducting interview-based research.

We are moving slowly but surely towards submission to be reviewed for publication.

Read more about Emma’s work in a Spring 2024 piece by CHER’s student writer Abby Arcuri.

What would you would say to medical students who want to dream big?

Meera and I didn’t know what we were hoping to do (we didn’t even initially plan on research at all)!

But we knew of a problem that affects patients and just talked to a lot of people about it.

Eventually we found people connected to CHER who were able to offer us options about how to move forward, including funding for research.

I would suggest that students be both persistent and flexible; both funding (and perhaps more importantly, mentorship) can come from different sources and have different restrictions. I would try to be as open-minded for as long as possible about the specific form your project will take and look for good mentors.

I would also say start early and be patient: research takes time.

What would you say to potential donors?

The opportunity to not only participate in, but lead, the financial assistance research project has been one of the defining experiences of my time in medical school at UNC.

I have developed skills as a project manager, qualitative methods researcher and health equity advocate. I also hope that the project itself will contribute to improving healthcare access for vulnerable communities.

Because of my experience with the Financial Assistance Research Project (FARP), I feel more motivated and prepared to continue in health equity advocacy and research for the rest of my career.

Support trainee research programs

Programs like FARP and CHER Research Summer Program (CRSP) offer medical students and other trainees funding and mentorship to explore research interests.

In addition to student development, programs like these support capacity for building and sustaining healthy communities.

Even modest grants can open new avenues of thought. Sometimes, like for Emma, they can help students shape and pursue ideas into sustainable projects. When that happens, impacts multiply. One person’s small spark becomes a source of warmth and light for many others.

With support from community members like you, we’re committed to re-starting CRSP and other programs to support students like Emma.