Dr. Ron Karni Serves as Co-Investigator on NCI Study of Urban/Rural Disparities in Head and Neck Cancer Survivorship
Ron Karni, MD, associate professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and division chief of head and neck surgical oncology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, is co-investigator on a new grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore differences in head and neck cancer survivorship services available in urban and rural areas. The project is led by Janet Van Cleave, PhD, RN, FAAN, an associate professor at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, and funded by a one-year $72,000 supplement to her R01 grant, “Implementing the NYU Electronic Patient Visit Assessment (ePVA) for Head and Neck Cancer in Rural and Urban Population.”
“People who have survived head and neck cancers need physical therapy, nutritional support, psychological counseling, and other services to improve their quality of life,” says Dr. Karni, who is the physician lead for Memorial Hermann Cancer Centers. “Dr. Van Cleave brings great expertise and new models in survivorship care to head and neck cancer patients. We look forward to working with her to improve our patients’ experience during and after cancer treatment.”
Dr. Karni’s team treats patients at UT Physicians Otorhinolaryngology-Texas Medical Center and other locations throughout the Greater Houston area. Patients travel as far as 250 miles for appointments that typically include visits with rehabilitation physicians, speech-language pathologists, and other clinicians who specialize in helping head and neck cancer patients with symptoms such as swallowing and vocal difficulties, range of motion deficits, and the psychological effects of survivorship.
“Providers at the Texas Medical Center treat patients at all economic levels who live in environments that range from densely populated urban centers to remote rural areas,” says Dr. Van Cleave, the Suzy Conway Endowed Professor in Nursing at UTHealth Houston.
Also serving as a co-investigator is Susan Fenton, PhD, RHIA, ACHIP, FAMIA, vice dean for education and the Doris L. Ross Professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston.
Through the descriptive research project, the investigators will review records of 250 patients who live in seven urban counties with metro area of more than 50,000 people and six less-populated counties. They will also interview patients, clinicians, and administrators to identify barriers to accessing survivorship care and to assess alignment of processes, policies, and evaluation/assessment metrics with the recently developed National Standards for Cancer Survivorship Care.