![/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/"Lindsey](/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//wp-content/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//blogs.dir/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//20/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//files/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//2025/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//03/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//166su_Lindsey-Ammann.png/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/")
A love for pickleball turned 166su medical student Isaac Soloveychik into a medical researcher who discovered that physical activity outdoors improves mental health more than exercising inside./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
Soloveychik was one of 120 future physician Knights who presented their research at the 2025 FIRE (Focused Individualized Research Experience) conference. 166su is one of the few medical schools in the nation that requires all students to do a two-year scientific research project. The goal, says Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and dean, is to create doctors who have a /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cspirit of inquiry/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d that is always looking to advance medical knowledge./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cResearch is the currency of progress,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d she says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
The conference featured poster and oral presentations on a variety of topics, such as using AI to better diagnose and manage diseases, improving critical reasoning in medical students, and ways to improve care for patients with conditions including cancer, schizophrenia, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and high blood pressure. Because of the FIRE course and the college/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019s research focus, many 166su medical students present and publish their scientific discoveries before ever graduating from medical school./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
Soloveychik says he became interested in exercise and mental health when his parents moved to Village Walk in Lake Nona and his dad became /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cobsessed/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d with pickleball. The two play often and he wondered, did group activities provide more mental health benefits than exercising alone because of the social connections involved? So he analyzed data from the Lake Nona Life Project /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2014 an extensive health survey of people who live, work and engage in activities in Lake Nona. The scientific project, led by Eric Schrimshaw, chair of population health sciences at the College of Medicine, in collaboration with the Lake Nona Institute, is designed to identify community health needs and offer solutions to make Lake Nona healthier. Participants answer survey questions about their health, including how much and where they exercise, their social interactions, work habits and levels of depression and anxiety./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
Soloveychik analyzed survey data from more than 350 participants and found that while group exercise was not associated with reduced depression as originally expected, outdoor activities /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2014 whether done in groups or individually /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2014 were positive for mental health./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cGetting outside, a change of scenery, being in the sun and listening to the birds provides mental health benefits,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d he says. Unsurprisingly, those who reported no exercise of any kind reported greater depression./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
Starlla Dabady hopes to become an OB/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485//GYN and her FIRE project focused on her passion for improving the health of mothers and babies. She studied a new program at Orlando Health that focused on improving outcomes for 25,000 patients at risk for serious pregnancy-related complications. Orlando Health provided telehealth, nurse navigators and a midwife mobile clinic that provided ultrasound and other services at the patient/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019s home. It gave mothers at-home blood pressure and blood sugar monitors to better manage their chronic health problems. Dabady spent the summer between her first and second year of medical school working with the program, where she saw its impact firsthand./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cResearch is important because you want to prove that what you/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019re doing is having an impact,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d she says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cResearch helps us strengthen what we are doing and improve our services. When I was working with the program I could see how I helped one patient. With research, I could see the impact we had on so many./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
Aaron Geril came to 166su/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019s medical school with a dream to fight cancer, a disease that has affected members of his family. At a mentor fair designed to link students with potential FIRE advisors, he met Otto Phanstiel, a 166su medicinal chemist who has dedicated his career to finding a cure for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease. The two connected over science. Geril/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019s FIRE project focused on developing inhibitors to a protein that is a master regulator of cancer cell growth signaling pathways. The goal /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2014 stop the signaling and stop cancer/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u2019s ability to grow and spread./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n
He says his research project gave him the opportunity to /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201cgo behind the scenes and see how medical discoveries are actually made./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/145485/n