Congratulations to assistant professor Bryan Blette, winner of the 2024 Art Wheeler Studio Award. Named after the late Arthur P. Wheeler, a renowned pulmonologist and leader in critical care medicine, the award recognizes an individual "who has demonstrated a passion for improving study quality through significant contributions to the VICTR [Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research] Studio Program."
The VICTR Studio Program supports Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Meharry Medical College researchers by hosting structured sessions where experts assist investigators with a specific stage or aspect of their studies. VICTR offers seven different types of studios (hypothesis generation, design, specific aims, grant review, manuscript, implementation, and community engagement), with hundreds of sessions conducted since 2007. A studio typically brings together an investigator, the investigator’s mentor/teacher (if applicable), an experienced moderator, up to six content and process experts, and a biostatistician.
The criteria for the Art Wheeler Studio Award includes quality of expertise shared and consistent involvement with the program, along with feedback from studio participants. Previous winners of the Wheeler Award include Dr. Cheryl Gatto, then research assistant professor of biostatistics and now operations director of VICTR's Center for Learning Healthcare.
Dr. Blette earned his PhD in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania before joining VUMC's Department of Biostatistics in 2023, where he is a mainstay of the Biostatistics Clinics program and the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center. He has also provided mentoring to trainees in the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Internships for Underrepresented Undergraduates initiative, the Vanderbilt-Nigeria Biostatistics Training Program (VN-Biostat), and the department's graduate program.
