Personalized hospital and surgeon matching to reduce surgery disparities
Personalized Provider Selection to Reduce Surgical Disparities
This project uses patient and hospital information to match people with colorectal cancer to higher-quality hospitals and surgeons to improve surgery outcomes, especially for Black and rural patients.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Pennsylvania NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Philadelphia, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11323865 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You'll be part of a project that combines information about your health, where you live, and hospital outcomes to find which hospitals and surgeons are likely to give the safest colorectal cancer surgery for you. The team will build a data tool that personalizes hospital referrals and model how changing referrals could lower complications and deaths, with special focus on Black and rural patients who currently face worse outcomes. They will use existing medical records and hospital quality data and simulate patient-level referral changes to estimate benefits. The goal is to create practical, data-driven guidance doctors and patients can use when choosing where to have surgery.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are people diagnosed with non-metastatic colorectal cancer who are considering surgery and who may have options to choose different hospitals or surgeons, particularly Black patients and those in rural areas.
Not a fit: Patients with metastatic disease not undergoing surgery, those without any realistic choice of hospital, or those whose care pathways are fixed by emergency circumstances may not directly benefit.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lower complications and deaths after colorectal cancer surgery and shrink racial and geographic gaps in surgical outcomes.
How similar studies have performed: Preliminary data from the team and related literature suggest data-driven referral could reduce disparities by over 30%, so this builds on promising but still early evidence.
Where this research is happening
Philadelphia, United States
- University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Kelz, Rachel — University of Pennsylvania
- Study coordinator: Kelz, Rachel
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.