The American Cancer Society has awarded the following 12 national research grants totaling approximately $8.5 million to support research to achieve better health equity. Says Otis W. Brawley, MD, the ACS's Chief Medical Officer: "In order to achieve health equity in the U.S., it is important that we explore ways to better understand how cancer affects different populations."
* Karen Freund, MD, MPH, of Tufts University School of Medicine has received the Clinical Research Professor award for her program on understanding the impact of the health care system on disparities in cancer outcomes for vulnerable populations, determining how patient navigator programs help reduce barriers to care in vulnerable populations, and understanding the role of health insurance reform in reducing health disparities.
* Hayley Thompson, PhD, of Wayne State University has received a grant to support her research on finding ways to improve the likelihood that Latina breast cancer survivors will get recommended screenings for recurrence and new cancers.
* Curtis Wray, MD, of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, has received a grant to test the care model he has proposed to reduce disparities in liver cancer treatment and outcomes for poor and medically underserved patients.
* Michael Businelle, PhD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, has received a grant to study the factors that make it less likely that Spanish-speaking Mexican American smokers of low socioeconomic status will successfully quit.
* Tullika Garg, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will study how health care system inefficiencies and poor adherence to guidelines can affect bladder cancer outcomes for vulnerable populations, such as women.
* David G. Perdue, MD, of the American Indian Foundation, will pilot use of community-based methods to develop culturally tailored tools designed to encourage American Indians to get colorectal cancer screenings in an attempt to reduce screening disparities among the urban and reservation American Indian population.
* Sarah J. Miller, PsyD, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, will test using motivational interviewing techniques to increase future colonoscopy adherence among African Americans to reduce cancer disparities.
* Jeffrey Peppercorn, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, will evaluate the impact of eliminating copayments for mammography screening on annual and biennial screening rates among rural, middle-aged women to determine if such a policy change could result in improved screening.
* Kathleen D. Lyons, ScD, of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, will test whether various occupational therapy intervention methods reduce disability in older adult cancer patients.
* Stacy Fischer, MD, of University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus and DC, will test using patient navigators to deliver culturally tailored intervention to improve palliative care for Latinos with advanced cancer in urban and rural communities.
* Terry A. Badger, PhD, RN, FAAN, of University of Arizona, will develop psychosocial intervention techniques for Latinas with cancer and their key support individuals to improve survivors' quality of life outcomes.
* Marla Clayman, PhD, of Northwestern University, Chicago Campus, will test strategies that help patients and care providers make more sound treatment decisions more aligned with individuals' values, priorities, and preferences.