Research Spotlight

Meet Dr. Evan Graboyes, Mentored Research Development Award (MRDA) recipient, Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Cancer Control Researcher at the NCI-designated MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, and Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) Surgeon Scientist. Dr. Graboyes’ research aims to decrease mortality and racial disparities in survival for HNC patients through innovative, multi-level, theory- based, healthcare delivery interventions to improve the timeliness and quality of care HNC delivery. His research focuses on identifying strategies to improve the timeliness and equity of postoperative radiation therapy following surgery for HNC, the critical area of delay in HNC.

HNC is a disease with poor survival, especially for African Americans, despite intense treatment including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Delays between surgery and the start of postoperative radiation therapy are common, cause excess mortality, and contribute to worse survival in African Americans. Dr. Graboyes’ research team has developed NDURE (Navigation for Disparities and Untimely Radiation thErapy), a multi-level, theory-based navigation
intervention that represents a promising approach to minimize delays starting radiation after HNC surgery. NDURE could provide the first effective intervention to improve timely, equitable care in this patient population, thereby improving survival for patients with HNC, decreasing racial disparities in mortality, and developing new standards of clinical care.

Dr. Neera Goyal, a pediatrician at Nemours Children’s Health System and Year 5 MRDA recipient and NIH Opioid Supplement Awardee, is researching the effects of intrauterine opioid exposure (IOE) in children and how the well child care (WCC) can improve medical, developmental, and psychosocial outcomes. This research study is supplemented by the Mentored Research Development Award (MRDA) and is a retrospective cohort study used PEDSnet data from a pediatric primary care network spanning three states (DE,PA,and FL), from 2011-2016. Among 11,334 children, 236 had a diagnosis of IOE. Children with IOE had a lower likelihood of adequate WCC compared with non-exposed children, adjusting for clinical and demographic risk factors . The conclusions from the study are that further research is needed on optimizing access to care and the role of WCC visits to support the complex needs of this population.

When we asked Dr. Goyal how the DE-CTR ACCEL Program has helped her in laying down the groundwork for her research, she said, “ It has not only provided support for my time, but also provided some helpful connections to researchers at Nemours and at the University of Delaware to help with analysis and grant writing.” Dr. Goyal participated in a mini workshop for grant writing geared towards the MRDA recipients, and has also utilized the mock review mechanism coordinated by the ACCEL Professional Development Core.

Assistant Professor of Surgery
Division of Vascular Surgery
Associate Program Director, Vascular Integrated Residency
Medical University of South Carolina

Congratulations to Dr. Jean Marie Ruddy! Dr. Ruddy was recently awarded an NIH K08 grant to continue her research, in part, thanks to ACCEL! Dr. Ruddy began her research career studying the biomedical link between hypertension and the occurrence of aortic aneurysms, as part of ACCEL’s Junior Investigator Network (JIN).  In 2015, she was awarded a Mentored Research-Development Award (MRDA). This award granted Dr. Ruddy with 6 months of increased research time which enabled her to receive personal assistance in grant writing and spend more time in her lab, productively advancing her research. Based on the data acquired, it established the groundwork for a National presentation and a publication in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.