Research
ORCID: 0000-0002-7579-5173
Building up a research agenda after spending 25 years in clinical medicine and reference publishing was challenging, to say the least. Things weren’t made any easier by the fact that there was no designated research lab or similar and no colleague with an established research agenda to guide or mentor. Therefore, it took a couple of years to get the first research projects going. But persistence pays off, and, over 10+ years, Dr. Reuter built up a thriving research agenda and established a tradition of excellence in faculty-mentored research in his department and college. Overall, almost 30 undergraduate and graduate students presented posters at national and international conferences or were co-authors of peer-reviewed articles. Most of these students went on to earn advanced degrees, usually in the medical field and health professions.
Dr. Reuter’s first projects were collaborations with his oldest daughter. His first IRB protocol was Assessing Healthcare & Community Needs: A comparative study between the Volta Region (Ghana) and Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea). For a variety of reasons, the research in Ghana never got started. However, the co-investigators collected data using surveys and interviews in Equatorial Guinea. They were the first to publish papers on the state of healthcare and mental health services in that country. Because the topics were of more local than global interest, they decided to publish in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal based in Nairobi, Kenya, called The Pan African Medical Journal. The first article (Healthcare in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa: Obstacles and Barriers to Care) has been cited 16-times so far and was mentioned in the 2018 Business Insider Singapore article “The 15 unhealthiest countries in the world”. The second article (Public health professionals’ perceptions of mental health services in Equatorial Guinea, Central-West Africa) has been cited six times.
The next IRB protocol, Anthropometric and Physiologic Differences in Men and Women, was designed to integrate research into Dr. Reuter's Anatomy & Physiology classes to give students the opportunity to participate in the project. Initially, the research focused on how the difference in the length of index finger (D2) and ring finger (D4) between men and women is accompanied by and linked to differences in other anatomical structures as well as other aspects of physical and mental well-being. Starting in 2016, the focus switched to joint hypermobility. In addition to conference presentations, four articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The article Prevalence of generalized joint hypermobility, musculoskeletal injuries, and chronic musculoskeletal pain among American university students, published by PeerJ in September 2019, has been cited 66-times already.
However, over time, the focus of Dr. Reuter's research shifted due to the restrictions on lab-based research mentioned above and his personal interests. Together with a group of undergraduate students, he started the project Student Health Behavior and Academic Success in the spring of 2018. The article The Influence of Eating Habits on the Academic Performance of University Students, published in The Journal of American College Health in February 2020, has been cited 72-times, and the article Student health behavior and academic performance, published online by PeerJ in April 2021, has been cited 33-times.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey tool was changed to capture the impact of the pandemic on students' mental health. Two articles were published based on the data collected. A longitudinal study of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on students’ health behavior, mental health and emotional well-being was published on PeerJ in December 2021, and How Students at a University in Florida Experienced and Coped with COVID-related Restrictions in May 2022 in Educational Research: Theory and Practice. The articles have been cited 22-times and 3-times, respectively.
Click here for peer-reviewed book chapters/articles and posters and workshop presentations.
Building up a research agenda after spending 25 years in clinical medicine and reference publishing was challenging, to say the least. Things weren’t made any easier by the fact that there was no designated research lab or similar and no colleague with an established research agenda to guide or mentor. Therefore, it took a couple of years to get the first research projects going. But persistence pays off, and, over 10+ years, Dr. Reuter built up a thriving research agenda and established a tradition of excellence in faculty-mentored research in his department and college. Overall, almost 30 undergraduate and graduate students presented posters at national and international conferences or were co-authors of peer-reviewed articles. Most of these students went on to earn advanced degrees, usually in the medical field and health professions.
Dr. Reuter’s first projects were collaborations with his oldest daughter. His first IRB protocol was Assessing Healthcare & Community Needs: A comparative study between the Volta Region (Ghana) and Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea). For a variety of reasons, the research in Ghana never got started. However, the co-investigators collected data using surveys and interviews in Equatorial Guinea. They were the first to publish papers on the state of healthcare and mental health services in that country. Because the topics were of more local than global interest, they decided to publish in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal based in Nairobi, Kenya, called The Pan African Medical Journal. The first article (Healthcare in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa: Obstacles and Barriers to Care) has been cited 16-times so far and was mentioned in the 2018 Business Insider Singapore article “The 15 unhealthiest countries in the world”. The second article (Public health professionals’ perceptions of mental health services in Equatorial Guinea, Central-West Africa) has been cited six times.
The next IRB protocol, Anthropometric and Physiologic Differences in Men and Women, was designed to integrate research into Dr. Reuter's Anatomy & Physiology classes to give students the opportunity to participate in the project. Initially, the research focused on how the difference in the length of index finger (D2) and ring finger (D4) between men and women is accompanied by and linked to differences in other anatomical structures as well as other aspects of physical and mental well-being. Starting in 2016, the focus switched to joint hypermobility. In addition to conference presentations, four articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The article Prevalence of generalized joint hypermobility, musculoskeletal injuries, and chronic musculoskeletal pain among American university students, published by PeerJ in September 2019, has been cited 66-times already.
However, over time, the focus of Dr. Reuter's research shifted due to the restrictions on lab-based research mentioned above and his personal interests. Together with a group of undergraduate students, he started the project Student Health Behavior and Academic Success in the spring of 2018. The article The Influence of Eating Habits on the Academic Performance of University Students, published in The Journal of American College Health in February 2020, has been cited 72-times, and the article Student health behavior and academic performance, published online by PeerJ in April 2021, has been cited 33-times.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey tool was changed to capture the impact of the pandemic on students' mental health. Two articles were published based on the data collected. A longitudinal study of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on students’ health behavior, mental health and emotional well-being was published on PeerJ in December 2021, and How Students at a University in Florida Experienced and Coped with COVID-related Restrictions in May 2022 in Educational Research: Theory and Practice. The articles have been cited 22-times and 3-times, respectively.
Click here for peer-reviewed book chapters/articles and posters and workshop presentations.
© 2016-2025 Peter Reuter. All rights reserved.
