When gastroenterologist Michelle T. Long, MD, hit a roadblock arranging a meeting to discuss a research idea with Echosens, a medical device company specializing in liver disease, she asked a senior hepatologist in her mentor-mentee match program for his help. As it turns out, that hepatologist already had a meeting scheduled with a contact at the device company for the following day. So, he connected Long to his contact and vouched for her work—a moment she says helped launch her research career.
That introduction led to a research agreement with the medical device company, which funded her use of a novel imaging tool for her work with the Framingham Heart Study—a project that became critical in helping her secure additional funding for her continued research to address crucial knowledge gaps in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.