Congratulations to third-year general surgery resident Dr. Austin Hewitt, who recently received a research initiation grant from the American Society of Colorectal Surgeons (ASCRS). The award will give her $20,000 for one year to conduct full-time research focused on diseases of the colon, rectum, and anus. Dr. Hewitt also receives funding from the Department of Surgery’s Surgical Oncology Research Training Program (T32) for both research and clinical care of people with and/or living with colorectal disease. plans to become an academic colorectal surgeon to address healthcare disparities through. Colorectal cancer risk.
“This grant from ASCRS provides me with the opportunity to gain field-specific knowledge and strengthen my research skillset, all of which will help me begin my career as a health services researcher. ” said Hewitt.
Dr. Hewitt’s research, under the direction of Christina Sanger, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Colorectal Surgery, is aimed at screening for anal cancer in patient groups considered at risk but for whom data are currently lacking. focused. I am taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication to prevent HIV infection.
“We suspect that these patients are not being adequately screened for anal tumors,” Hewitt explained. “As a result, the prevalence of anal neoplasms and anal cancer in this population is not well characterized.”
He plans to study this by looking at a national dataset of patients receiving PrEP therapy at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Hewitt also plans to conduct interviews with veterans’ clinicians who prescribe PrEP therapy to determine barriers to acceptance and implementation of anal cancer screening with PrEP among veterans. The results of this study will inform current screening practices for PrEP patients within the Veterans Administration, identify risk predictors for anal tumors and anal cancer in this population, and help systems, hospitals, clinicians, and and possible patient-level factors. This change was made to improve the rate of anal cancer screening.