Wright State medical student selected for prestigious clinical research program

Domenick Bartoletti, a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, interned at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle as part of the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program.

When Domenick Bartoletti graduates with his medical degree from Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine, he will have insight into conducting research and clinical trials with underserved populations in mind.

That’s because Bartoletti is one of 72 medical students nationwide — out of about 600 applicants — selected for the third cohort of the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program. Specifically, he is in the Clinical Investigator Pathway Program (Winn CIPP), which provides a six-week summer internship focused on hands-on clinical research.

Bartoletti has been at his internship at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle since June 3. He returns to the Dayton area July 12, in preparation for starting his second year of medical school on July 22.

Bartoletti, a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard, said the cohort selection process was competitive, and he appreciates the nature of the program.

“It’s to bring an awareness that in a lot of research we do in clinical trials, there’s not a lot of racial or ethnic diversity,” he said. “We can bring that to light in our own research in the future.”

“Historically, nearly 80% of clinical trial participants are white, which does not accurately represent the country’s demographics,” the Winn award program said in a release. “Providing every patient with the care they deserve starts with nurturing the next generation of diverse medical leaders.”

The cohort also focuses on diversity of those in the medical profession.

Bartoletti is a first-generation college graduate. His path to Wright State’s Boonshoft School of Medicine had a couple of twists.

After graduating high school, he joined the military because, he said, “I needed to get my life together.”

With the military’s academic assistance program, he enrolled in Allegheny Community College, then Carlow University, both near his Western Pennsylvania home, and earned a degree in human biology.

As a member of the Army National Guard, he became a medic, working with physicians in training exercises. The amount of hands-on experience he received and working closely with physicians inspired him to become a doctor.

He chose Boonshoft School of Medicine because of Wright State’s reputation for treating military personnel and veterans well and its association with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

During his internship in Seattle, Bartoletti is shadowing clinical cancer researchers and working with a principal investigator on clinical trials in that landscape.

“The Winn CIPP program is an excellent opportunity for Domenick and allows him to grain very valuable service-learning experience in clinical trials research,” said Paul Hershberger, Ph.D., associate dean for research affairs and professor and director of research in the Department of Family Medicine at the Boonshoft School of Medicine.

Hershberger added that Bartoletti’s participation reflects the commitment of the Boonshoft School of Medicine to “training a diverse group of medical students who are prepared to serve a wide array of patients, including persons from underserved communities.”

“I have the privilege of working with Domenick on a student-initiated research study that is looking at contributors to resilience and burnout in medical residents,” Hershberger added, “and have found him to be industrious, thoughtful and very personable in this collaboration.”

Bartoletti is expected to graduate with his medical degree in 2027, after which he hopes to go into trauma surgery or orthopedics, although, he said, “I have a very open mind about what I may choose.”

But through the cohort, he said, “I’ll have an understanding and insight if I do conduct research in the future.”