Samford Student’s Research Published in The Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science

by lAurA FreemAn

Experience can be a strong source of inspiration. Many who go into healing professions can trace their interest back to a time when they or someone near them went through a health challenge.

For Luke Bice, being born with a serious heart defect originally led him to want to become a neonatal cardiothoracic surgeon. “I wanted to help save babies with congenital heart defects,” he said. “After a couple of years studying biology on the premed track, it seemed that treatment for these types of disorders was already well-advanced. I talked with a friend’s father who worked with a large healthcare organization and realized that healthcare administration offered the potential for creating beneficial changes on a broad scale. So I changed my major at Samford University to Healthcare Administration.”

During a course in contemporary issues in healthcare, Bice went to instructor Courtney N. Haun, PhD, MPH, to ask about opportunities to participate in research.

“I challenged Luke to think about topics that would be of particular interest to him,” Haun said. “He shared that he had been born with a critical congenital heart defect (CCHD). I suggested that he look into the topic to see if he could identify an area where more data research was needed.”

Bice, who grew up in Geneva, Illinois, was diagnosed at birth with dextro-transposition of the great arteries (D-TGA), with the aorta and pulmonary artery reversed where they connect to the heart, preventing it from pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body.

“I was air lifted to UNC Children’s Hospital, where I received an open heart surgery called an Arterial Switch operation,” he said. “Since then, I have been blessed with good health and have not been physically or mentally limited. The condition is not expected to cause any future problems.”

In reviewing related literature, Bice found a study in JAMA about newborn screening for heart defects and the lives those screenings had potentially saved. He noticed that the findings in the study had only been reported through 2013.

“Luke set out to bring those findings