On June 30th, 2023, the National Cancer Institute awarded Dr. Lund and Dr. Louise Henderson a 5-year R01 grant for nearly $1.8 million for the project, “Applying causal inference methods to improve estimation of the real-world benefits and harms of lung cancer screening.” Learn more about the project on NIH RePORTER.
The project will apply novel causal inference methodologies to evaluate the benefits and harms of lung cancer screening in clinical practice settings. Using data from the randomized National Lung Screening Trial, as well as real-world datasets including the National Health and Interview Survey, the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey, a 20% nationwide sample of Medicare claims, and the North Carolina Lung Screening Registry, the study will generate real-world evidence to improve the delivery of lung cancer screening at the population level.
Other faculty and collaborators on the grant include Michael Hudgens, PhD, and Til Stürmer, MD, PhD, from the Gillings School, as well as Dan Reuland, MD, MPH, from the School of Medicine.
On June 7, 2023, the Office of Research, Innovation and Global Solutions at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health officially announced awardees of the Place and Health: A North Carolina Public Health Approach Grant to explore the role of place (geography) in health outcomes across North Carolina through building infrastructure to investigate community concerns about the disparate impacts of extreme weather-related disasters on health care access in NC. Congratulations to Principal Investigator Dr. Lund and co-investigators Chris Baggett PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology; John Wallace, PhD, senior data adviser with the North Carolina Institute for Public Health; Arrianna Planey, PhD, assistant professor of health policy and management; Eboneé Butler, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology; and Paul Delamater, PhD, assistant professor with the UNC Department of Geography, and dedicated gratitude to the community partner, Hetal Patel, partnership manager with the MDC Rural Forward program as well as cofunding support from the Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility.
Learn more about the awardees and groundbreaking projects funded on the official School of Global Public Health press release !
On Saturday, May 13, 2023, Doctors Jeff Yufeng Yang, Sydney T. Thai, Emilie Danielle Duchesneau, Christine D. Hsu were celebrated for achieving their PhD degrees at the UNC 2023 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. Congratulations on their tremendous accomplishments, and we wish them every success in their future endeavors!
Throughout their studies, these graduates have make remarkable contributions to Pharmacoepidemiology, as proven through their dissertation research and ongoing work. Please join us in congratulating Doctors Duchesneau, Hsu, Thai, and Yang on their momentous achievements!
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Emilie D. Duchesneau, MSPH successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled, “Validation of a Medicare claims-based frailty index for identifying longitudinal changes in frailty in older adults” on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Our research group is so proud of Emilie and are eagerly watching as she makes decisions about the next steps in her career. The future is bright – congrats!!
We are thrilled to welcome the three newest members of our research group – Bria Carmichael, Jeanny Wang, and Xiaomeng (Olivia) Chen! These first year students will be soaking in all that the Department of Epidemiology has to offer – and are so excited to see where their research interests lead. Welcome! Learn about the members of our research group here
Sydney Thai, MS successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled, “Frailty Screening and Impairment Patterns in Older Adults with Cancer: A Dissertation using the Cancer Aging and Resilience Evaluation (CARE) Registry” on Monday, July 25, 2022. Our research group is so proud of Sydney’s accomplishments and wish him success in this new phase of his career starting his own consulting business and exploring new research initiatives in machine learning, EHRs, and malnutrition research.
Christine Hsu, PharmD successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled, “Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance Trends in Individuals with Cirrhosis in North Carolina, 2010-2018” on Monday, June 20, 2022. Our research group is so proud of Christine’s accomplishments and wish her well on her next steps as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston!
Dr. Jihye Park successfully defended her thesis titled “Adjuvant radiation therapy and outcomes among older women with early-stage endometrial cancer” on March 7, 2022.
Dr. Sejin Lee successfully defended her thesis titled “Real-World Treatment Patterns and Outcomes for Patients with Advanced Melanoma: Immunotherapy versus Targeted Therapy” on March 15, 2022.
Congratulations on these AMAZING accomplishments – our team is so proud of you!
