Special consideration was given to projects that focus on addressing Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, specifically as these relate to rural and other vulnerable populations who experience health disparities. The competitive process awarded grants to the following Penn Staters across three colleges and seven departments:
— Vida Abedi, associate professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine: “Current and future physicians’ knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives on the adoption of AI in clinical workflow.” Co-PIs (primary investigators) are Jennifer Wagner and Ramin Zand.
According to the study, it is essential for biomedical AI tools to be implemented in a human-centered way so that they adequately address the needs and interests of those expected to use them and overcome hurdles that might undermine the beneficial effect of AI. This study will explore the knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives of current and future physicians toward AI to clarify how to integrate biomedical AI tools into the clinical workflow successfully.
— Rebecca Bascom, professor, Departments of Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine: “Mechanism of severe early onset familial pulmonary fibrosis.” Co-PIs are James Broach, Zissis Chroneos and Amanda Nelson.
According to the study, pulmonary fibrosis is a debilitating disease where inflammation and scarring of the lungs makes breathing increasingly difficult. The clinical and personalized medicine teams at Penn State College of Medicine identified a genetic mutation in the lung surfactant protein A2 gene. This study will help to advance our understanding of disease mechanism and learning of how to treat the disease.
— Jessica Ericson, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine: “Neonatal RNA sequencing-Assisted Pathogen IDentification (RAPID).” Co-PIs are James Broach, Danielle Smith and James Fisher.
According to the study, babies are particularly vulnerable to serious infections during the first month of life. It is very difficult to distinguish serious bacterial infections from viral infections or non-infectious causes of illness using clinical signs and standard laboratory studies. This study will result in pilot data that can be used to improve pathogen identification in neonates in rural and low-resources settings using novel diagnostics.
— Tullika Garg, associate professor, Department of Urology, Penn State Cancer Institute: “Advancing surgical care for older adults by implementing electronic geriatric assessment tools." Co-PIs are: Joe O. Littlejohn Jr. and Nicole Osevala.
According to the study, up to 70% of older adults undergoing major cancer surgery have geriatric impairments and frailty which are associated with mortality, complications, and reduced quality of life. Age alone is not adequate to identify who is fit for surgery, and as a result, surgical practice guidelines recommend assessing geriatric impairments and frailty to guide surgical decisions. This study aims to overcome barriers to implementing evidence-based, guideline-recommended geriatric assessment tools into surgical practice. The study team will engage community-dwelling older adults with cancer as co-designers to adapt existing self-administered GA tools into an easy-to-use electronic survey that could be completed at home before a surgical clinic visit.
— Yogasudha Veturi, assistant professor, Departments of Behavioral Health and Statistics, Penn State College of Health and Human Development: “Identifying longitudinal disease trajectories for cognitive impairment and dementia in urban and rural populations."
According to the study, rural populations (especially rural women) face increasing risk of chronic diseases and cognitive decline driven in part by greater rates of risky behaviors and poorer access to healthcare services, including emergency services, primary care, and insurance coverage. Thus, a subpopulation-specific assessment of multimorbidities can be instrumental for designing appropriate early interventions for mild cognitive impairment and dementia. The long-term goal of this study is to provide guided clinical interventions for better disease management and reduce associated healthcare costs, especially for rural populations.
— Nancy Williams, professor, Department of Kinesiology and Physiology, Penn State College of Health and Human Development: “Modifiable prevention and early intervention targets for eating disorder pathology: A study in first-year undergraduates.” Co-PIs are Mary Jane De Souza, Jamal Essayli and Prabhani Kuruppmullage Don.
According to the study, the effects of social isolation, imposition of physical distancing, disruption of academic learning, student jobs and social life and lockdown measures imposed during the COVID pandemic have caused a sharp increase in mental health problems particularly among college-aged young adults. Undergraduates who are at high risk of developing eating disorders, are at a particularly high vulnerability as they transition from high school to college for worsening mental health and eating disorders. This study will look at new post-COVID prevalence rates of eating disorder behaviors and their psychological and physical associated health problems in first-year undergraduate students.
— Xiang Zhu, assistant professor, Department of Statistics, Penn State Eberly College of Science: “Machine learning-enabled synergy of DNA biobanks and single-cell multi-omics to advance substance use genetics in diverse human populations." Co-PIs are Qunhua Li, Jennifer Nyland and Jennifer Moss.
According to the study, many under-served populations, such as rural communities, suffer a disproportionate burden from the worsening drug overdose epidemic in the US. Understanding the genetic basis of substance use helps develop more effective and equitable strategies to combat this epidemic. This study will establish a biologically interpretable and socially equitable framework for substance use genetics, promoting efficacy and equity in precision medicine for everyone.
“We were thrilled to have received strong proposals addressing rural and at-risk populations this year,” said Jennifer Kraschnewski, director of the institute. “The seven funded projects represent diverse research topics across the translational spectrum. We look forward to seeing where these projects lead to ultimately improve the health of the communities we serve.”