UH Manoa Nursing Faculty Awarded Major R01 Grant from NIH
Holly Fontenot, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FAAN, Associate Dean for Research and Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, and Member of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, has been awarded a major R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute to advance cervical cancer prevention efforts.
An R01 is the NIH’s most prestigious research project award, supporting innovative, investigator-driven studies that have the potential to make a significant impact on public health. The award is for the Development of Systems and Education for Cervical Cancer prevention (DOSE-CC), a new multi-institutional, team-based project that will adapt, validate, and test the impact of a cervical cancer screening and follow-up intervention at three primary care clinical sites across the United States, including Hawaii, Florida, and Massachusetts.
Dr. Fontenot is one of four Multiple Principal Investigators on the project, alongside long-term collaborators at Boston Medical Center (Dr. Karsten Lunze), Tufts University (Dr. Rebecca Perkins), and the Moffitt Cancer Center (Dr. Susan Vadaparampil). Fontenot will lead the Hawaii-based portion of the research, building on her prior research focused on women’s health and HPV-associated cancer prevention. The local investigative team includes Drs. Komal Soin and Patty Tran from the John A. Burns School of Medicine. The study is guided by a strong advisory board composed of community members, patients and clinicians across the three states.
The award—approximately $3.5 million over five years, distributed across partner institutions—stems from a strong history of collaboration. DOSE-CC builds directly on findings from the research team’s prior studies, including Cervical Cancer: Provider Response and Options of Guidelines Related to Screening Strategies (CC PROGRESS), funded by the American Cancer Society, and DOSE-HPV, led by Dr. Perkins, which successfully improved HPV vaccination rates.
“This award reflects the strength of our ongoing research partnerships and the importance of multidisciplinary teams working together to develop effective, sustainable, and impactful multi-level interventions that help to transform the current paradigm in cancer screening and follow-up,” Fontenot says.
Work for DOSE-CC is underway and will be completed by 2030.