The PriCARE study, led by Samantha Schilling, a pediatrician at the UNC School of Medicine, is helping parents navigate some the challenges of helping their children grow and develop. The research team developed a series of six evidence-based workshops where parents learn about child behavior, cooperation, the impact of stress on children and caregivers, and fostering a positive parent-child relationship.

"Pressure injuries" from intubation can be painful, and sometimes even require plastic surgery to fix, making the hospital stay even more complicated for patients who are already facing serious illness. A group of UNC researchers with support from FastTraCS, the medtech incubator at NC TraCS, is working to make these complications a thing of the past through development of a mouthguard that secures the endotracheal tube without putting pressure on a person's skin.

Anna Kahkoska (previous TraCS K Scholar) and Angela Fruik are managing the "ChargeUp" study to scale new evidence-based treatments to reduce distress in people with Type 1 diabetes. But before diving into screening participants and testing interventions, they used community feedback sessions facilitated by the Patient and Community Engagement in Research (PaCER) program at NC TraCS.

Chris Sayed, a dermatologist at the UNC School of Medicine, has spent much of his career focused on what he calls the worst and most common disease you've never heard of: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). Sayed didn't have the funding or resources to undertake a study on the fundamental science of a mysterious illness. So, he turned to NC TraCS and used a TraCS pilot grant to kickstart his research career.