UNE's Edward Li, Chunhao Tu, and Gary Cattabriga receive Maine Cancer Foundation Research Grant

The Maine Cancer Foundation Research Grant Committee has awarded the University of New England's College of Pharmacy and its Center for Health, Policy, Planning and Research a grant of $55,936 to pursue the "Feasibility of Using SEER-Medicare Data to Assess the Influence of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents Policy Changes on Outcomes."

UNE Pharmacy Professors Edward Li and Chunhao Tu along with Gary Cattabriga of UNE's Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research will conduct this research in collaboration with the Maine Medical Center Cancer Research Institute.

Recently, national policies overseeing the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), which are medications used to stimulate red blood cell production, have been implemented with the purpose of increasing the safety of these agents.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate real-world data to see if the health outcomes related to patient safety have improved after the implementation of these policies. The source of data is a national database of insurance claims (Medicare), which is linked to surveillance data from a national cancer registry.