麻豆传媒

News — February 21, 2025, Nutley, NJ – A Hackensack Meridian Health researcher and her team will partner with community groups to increase lung-cancer screening in two counties - and potentially save lives - among underserved populations. 

The two-year, $750,000 Genentech Health Equity Innovation Grant was awarded to Lisa Carter-Bawa, Ph.D., MPH, APRN, ANP-C, FAAN, the director of the (CDI)’s Cancer Prevention Precision Control Institute (CPPCI) and her team, in partnership with Greater Bergen Community Action (GBCA).

The partnership between Hackensack Meridian Health and GBCA is called Community-2-Care+Environment: Lung, or C2C+E. It will result in hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of at-risk patients being screened for lung cancer in Bergen and Passaic counties. Many of these patients will be underserved and from minority groups, particularly African-Americans and Latinos.

“We are excited that our proposal was selected,” said Dr. Carter-Bawa, who is also the director of the John Theurer Cancer Center’s Cancer Community Outreach and Engagement office, as well as Deputy Associate Director | Community Outreach & Engagement for the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We will do targeted outreach, social determinant of health assessments and navigation to resources, and we are also going to leverage our Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine medical students to conduct healthy home assessments in order to identify homes with elevated radon levels and mitigate the radon in order to decrease lung cancer risk.”

The process will involve adding a new community health worker and patient navigator, who will meet with prospective patients at the GBCA and out in the community. These community specialists will review the social determinants of health for the respective patients with them. The factors will include finances, housing stability, transportation needs, food insecurity, stress, social connections and tobacco use. The community health worker will then connect each individual to a patient navigator who will help determine next steps or future assessments.

Also involved will be second- and third- year medical students from the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s , who will be embedded within the activities of performing health home assessments, education, and also about mitigation of possible environmental risks. 

The main goal: to get full screening for the disease for those most at-risk. 

But the goals extend even further, with establishing networks in the community to better provide health care access to those who are contacted through the process. 

“This is further innovative work from the CPPCI which will make actionable change out in the community, which is what the CDI is always aiming for,” said David Perlin, Ph.D., the chief scientific officer and executive vice president of the CDI. 

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. The network has 18 hospitals and more than 500 patient care locations, which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers, physician practice locations, and a fitness and wellness center. With more than 35,000 team members and 7,000 physicians, Hackensack Meridian Health is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy and committed to the health and well-being of communities throughout New Jersey. 

The network’s notable distinctions include having the only #1 ranked adult and children's hospitals in New Jersey, as ranked by U.S. 麻豆传媒 & World Report, 2024-25. Hackensack University Medical Center is nationally-ranked by U.S. 麻豆传媒 & World Report in eight specialties. To learn more, visit.   

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DISCOVERY AND INNOVATION

The Center for Discovery and Innovation, a member of Hackensack Meridian Health, translates current innovations in science to improve clinical outcomes for patients. More than 29 laboratories, 185 professional researchers and physician-scientists at the CDI have set their sights on cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and other acute and chronic diseases. Clinical need drives the scientific insights, and their application, for these researchers, as shown in the real-time response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in new diagnostics, therapies, and surveillance abilities. The CDI leverages a new wave of scientific advances involving genetics, cell engineering of the human immune system, and imaging to better diagnose, treat and prevent disease through personalized medicine approaches. For additional information, please visit .

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE (HMHRI): 

HMHRI leads and organizes a connected ecosystem bringing together clinicians, scientists, and educators to respond to the health problems of our time, in real-time. HMHRI is dedicated to accelerating discovery, innovation, and translation of scientific breakthroughs that address unmet clinical needs.