Cancer Genetic Testing
As part of my Research Assistantship at Huntsman Cancer Institute, I work directly with Kimberly Kaphingst to understand how to integrate Cancer Genetic Testing into clinical primary care settings, how to communicate results in a clear and concise way, and most important to my research, how medical institutions and researchers communicate the importance of these technologies to racial/ethnic minorities and how that may influence their motivation and intention to utilize Cancer Genetic Testing.
Ongoing Projects related to Cancer Genetic Testing
Chatbot
Through the use of an integrated Virtual Conversational Agent (VCA) we are hoping to see how this Chatbot can improve patient engagement with Cancer Genetic Testing. We have a paper currently being developed to assess interactions of users with our Chatbot to determine if they may be a useful alternative to a pre-test visit of an in-person genetic counselor.
Patient Directed Model of Care
While the uses of Cancer Genetic Testing have been well established, using VCAs as a way to empower patients to decide what have not be robustly tested. We are currently implementing a project that will test the efficacy of a patient directed model of care using a VCA through a multisite, randomized and longitudinal study design.
Latinx Representation
With a forthcoming publication, Kimberly Kaphingst, Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou of the NCI and myself analyzed 7 years of publications regarding communication of cancer genetic testing and found only 3% of published research (13 of 513 papers) had majority Latinx participants in their studies. This study notes of the importance of better communication and involvement of Latinx populations in Cancer Genetic Testing scholarship.
Motivation to Test among Racial/Ethnic Minorities
While motivations to receive Cancer Genetic Testing in the current literature have varied, there are few studies that looked at motivations in particular with racial/ethnic groups. As such, I am keenly interested in attitudes, perceptions and knowledge that Latinx members may hold about Cancer Genetic Testing and how that likely effects their motivation and intention to utilze the technology.