The American Cancer Society has awarded a five-year, $1.2 million Team Science grant to a group of UNC-Chapel Hill researchers who will develop new methods to measure and map cancer screening across North Carolina.
TOP ROW, FROM LEFT: DRS. KATHERINE REEDER-HAYES, JENNY LUND AND CHRISTOPHER BAGGETT; BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT: DRS. LOUISE HENDERSON, STEPHANIE WHEELER AND DAN REULAND
Katherine Reeder-Hayes, MD, is the study’s lead principal investigator, and Jenny Lund, PhD, and Christopher Baggett, PhD, are the team principal investigators. These three faculty members co-direct the UNC Lineberger Cancer Information & Population Health Resource (CIPHR).
Other research team members include Louise Henderson, PhD, Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, Dan Reuland, MD, and Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD — all faculty with ties to the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC’s School of Medicine, and/or the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center — as well as Brian Reich, PhD, from N.C. State University, and CIPHR staff.
The grant will fund research designed to facilitate more widespread cancer screening and early detection, culminating in reduced cancer mortality. Specifically, the researchers will use data from CIPHR to create new tools based on insurance claims that more efficiently measure and compare cancer screening use across small geographic areas and groups of people.