A $1.58 million grant will support work by a health communication scholar at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Nursing and a medical oncologist at West Cancer Center and Research Institute (WCCRI) to identify sociocultural and structural factors that are root causes of cancer health disparities for Black women in the Mid-South.
Assistant Professor Janeane Anderson, PhD, MPH, is a social scientist and health communication scholar at the College of Nursing whose research focuses on how interpersonal factors affect health outcomes among Black adults. “For the last seven years, my research has explored how interpersonal factors, specifically patient-clinician communication, impact health outcomes among Black adults. In the South, we see delays, access issues, and unnecessary burden at every step of the cancer continuum for Black women. I’m trying to understand why and what can be done to change it,” she said.
The study, “A prospective qualitative exploration of multilevel factors affecting outcome disparities among Black women with or at high risk for breast cancer in the U.S. Mid-South region,” is funded by Gilead Sciences, Inc. – a biopharmaceutical company based in Foster City, CA, that also develops antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, influenza, and COVID-19. Dr. Anderson will serve as Co-Principal Investigator on the three-year grant, along with Co-PI Gregory Vidal, MD, PhD, director of clinical research and a medical oncologist at West Cancer Center and Regional One Health. Dr. Vidal, an expert in breast cancer, is also an Associate Professor in the College of Medicine at UT Health Science Center.
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