Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Program for Health Equity Research (PHER) has announced the recipients of the 2024-2025 PHER Pilot Grant Awards. These awards support innovative research projects that advance health equity and promote optimal health outcomes across diverse populations. This year, PHER supports two outstanding projects that exemplify PHER’s mission to generate and advance research aimed at not only addressing health disparities but also advancing our understanding of what works, for whom, and under what conditions to promote health and health outcomes to achieve optimal health across populations.
The Co-Directors of PHER, Velma McBride Murry, PhD, and Ebele Mary-Anne Umeukeje, MD, MPH, said, in a statement, “This initiative reflects a critical need expressed by research scholars interested in pursuing health equity research. These pilot grants are guided by one of the key pillars of PHER and serve a critical role in advancing health equity research. These funds provide opportunities for research scholars and community partners to develop a project with the ultimate goal of obtaining preliminary findings to apply for external funding. These two projects also further PHER’s vision, to become the nation’s leader in health equity research that’s inclusive, supportive, and diverse by creating a rigorous environment for application-driven research with rapid response to policies and practices.”
Uchenna Anani, MD, FAAP
Project Title: Addressing Trauma-Informed Communication & Care Practices in the NICU for Parents of Infants with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
Uchenna Anani, MD, assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology, will lead a qualitative study aimed at enhancing trauma-informed care and communication practices in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Focusing on parents of infants diagnosed with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), Dr. Anani’s research will explore the traumatic experiences these parents face while making critical decisions for their newborns. By retrospectively interviewing a diverse group of former NICU parents, this study seeks to understand how factors such as race, ethnicity, language preference, and insurance status influence trauma and resilience in the NICU. The findings will inform how trauma-informed care can be integrated with a social justice lens to improve communication and provide high-quality, equitable healthcare for NICU patients and their families.
Anani says, “I am incredibly excited to be a recipient of the Program for Health Equity Research (PHER) Pilot Grant. As a qualitative researcher and rising health equity scholar, PHER’s mission perfectly aligns with my values to promote collaboration and community engagement within my scholarly work. Through the narratives of parents and caretakers in the NICU facing a traumatic experience of their infant diagnosed and treated for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, I aim to better understand how trauma-informed care and communication merges and diverges across diverse populations including race, spoken language, and socio-economic status. This project will exemplify how trauma-informed are can integrate a health equity lens to enhance equitable communication and care delivery and serve as the impetus for the creation of an equity-centric trauma-informed framework for parent-provider communication and bedside counseling in the NICU for future parents and caretakers of infants with HIE. I am excited for the opportunity to continue this work and thankful for the support of the PHER Pilot grant.”
Walter Dehority, MD, MSc
Project Title: Assessing the Acceptability of Mobile Immunization Clinics Offering Peer or Medical Provider Vaccine Counseling at Mass Gatherings to Increase Adolescent Vaccine Uptake in Rural Tennessee
Walter Dehority, MD, professor of Pediatric Infectious Disease, will lead a pilot study exploring the acceptability and effectiveness of mobile immunization clinics offering vaccine counseling in rural Tennessee. His project will investigate whether vaccine counseling administered by community-based peers or medical providers at mass gatherings (e.g., fairs or festivals) versus smaller community venues (e.g., libraries or churches) is more effective in increasing adolescent vaccine uptake. Dr. Dehority’s overarching goal is to advance health equity through transformational community engagement by facilitating access to preferred and effective mobile vaccination venues and culturally tailored messaging for rural populations.
Dehority says, “Vaccines only work if people take them. Unfortunately, many in our society living in rural areas do not have appropriate access to life-saving vaccines, nor access to appropriate resources through which they may learn about such vaccines in a non-threatening and non-judgmental manner. This PHER grant will allow us to study community-based approaches to facilitating knowledge and vaccine uptake in rural areas of our state.”
