How doctor stress, health worries, and short-term illness affect ER care for abdominal pain

The Impacts of Adverse Provider Conditions on Provider Bias and Health Disparities

NIH-funded research University of Arkansas at Fayetteville · NIH-11193887

This project looks at whether emergency doctors’ stress, concerns about their own health, or short-term inflammation change how they treat people with abdominal pain.

Quick facts

Grant typeR01 grant
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionUniversity of Arkansas at Fayetteville NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (Fayetteville, United States)
Project IDNIH-11193887 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

From a patient point of view, the team will work with emergency physicians to see when and why care varies for people who come in with belly pain. They will collect brief surveys about workplace demands and worries about personal health, and take simple biological samples to measure short-term inflammation. The researchers will compare those provider measures to how consistently doctors make treatment decisions for different patients with abdominal pain. The goal is to identify provider and system situations that could be changed to make care fairer.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Ideal candidates are people who come to participating emergency departments with abdominal pain and whose care might be influenced by clinician decision-making.

Not a fit: People with health issues unrelated to emergency abdominal pain or those treated outside the participating hospitals are unlikely to get direct benefit from this grant.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to ways to reduce inconsistent or biased emergency care for people with abdominal pain.

How similar studies have performed: Prior work shows clinician stress and burnout can affect care, but combining self-reported health worries and biological inflammation to predict inconsistent treatment is a newer approach.

Where this research is happening

Fayetteville, United States

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Last reviewed 2026-06-10 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.