What surprised even her, though, was not just undergraduate access to a clinical research study at UConn but the ability to run one on her own. That came thanks to her Introduction to Translational Research (MCB3100) class in fall 2024 and later on receipt of a Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) Award<\/a> through the Office of Undergraduate Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both put her at Connecticut Children\u2019s hospital in Hartford for the better part of the last year, first as a research assistant on a more senior student\u2019s project, then as the principal investigator of her own.<\/p>\n \u201cThe class and all the experiences that I\u2019ve had at Connecticut Children\u2019s have continued to shape my perspective on what being a physician is and what it can be like,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s shown me that it\u2019s all about clinical care, the patients, and learning how to best treat them. But you can also do that by contributing to increased knowledge in your field too.\u201d<\/p>\n Komninakas was introduced to Connecticut Children\u2019s emergency room in MCB3100 when she worked as a research assistant, so continuing there for her SURF project under the mentorship of Dr. Sharon Smith, a pediatric professor at the School of Medicine and faculty member at Connecticut Children’s, and doing the same kind of work \u2013 surveying parents \u2013 was a no-brainer.<\/p>\n Her study, \u201cInformation Seeking Behavior of Pediatric Patients in the CT Children\u2019s Emergency Department,\u201d sought to learn more about what resources parents used before deciding to visit the ER and whether their decision was influenced by those resources.<\/p>\n She asked parents of children under 18 if they talked with a physician, family member, or friend before making the trip. Did they solicit information in a Google search, or look up a symptom on a medical website, or get feedback on social media? She queried their level of trust in their child\u2019s primary doctor and whether they felt it was a good relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was partially to investigate if patients who had a better relationship with their physician were more likely to turn to their doctor first versus someone who doesn\u2019t or someone who looked up online health information,\u201d she says. \u201cThe hypothesis of the study was that younger parents would be more likely to use online health information and certain types of online health information as well.\u201d<\/p>\n With just over 100 parents in the survey, Komninakas says drawing fixed conclusions is premature, but she has seen some patterns.<\/p>\n Parents who went online did so to check specific symptoms, and they were less worried about the situation than parents who contacted their doctor before visiting the ER.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have enough data to say younger parents went straight to the emergency room when they were worried, but it was a very consistent trend that younger parents, likely with younger children, had higher rates of worry or anxiety,\u201d she says. \u201cHigh parental anxiety was also highly correlated with online searching for health information.\u201d<\/p>\n During an unrelated volunteer opportunity at Burgdorf Health Center in Hartford, Komninakas says she noticed that many of its patients failed to show up for appointments and learned that oftentimes at health clinics, patients hold a certain level of distrust toward their provider.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversations I had with the physicians at Burgdorf sparked my interest in patient-physician distrust and caused me to wonder where people were getting their medical health information from and how that\u2019s changed over time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs many studies have shown, online information in general, and certainly social media, have a growing impact on how people make their decisions, how they\u2019re thinking, and the things they consider,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd when I started to look further, it was interesting that there were no studies in the last 10 years looking at pediatric online information seeking behavior of parents.\u201d<\/p>\n International studies have been done, she noted, but the last U.S. study published about a decade ago looked only at online searches and hadn\u2019t considered social media. That survey\u2019s population also was different than the demographics at Connecticut Children\u2019s, which has a large Hispanic patient population.<\/p>\n For Komninakas, Connecticut Children\u2019s offered her the opportunity to use that Spanish<\/a> double major and translate survey questions for patients who otherwise wouldn\u2019t have been able to participate in her project because of a language barrier.<\/p>\n![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Irena-vertical-274x300.jpeg\")
Do Younger Parents Go Online First?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
First US Study in 10 Years, Only to Look at Social Media<\/strong><\/h4>\n