Chelsea Anderson, PhD. Dr. Anderson is the biostatistician\/epidemiologist for the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease and for the Data Management Center for the Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Foundation. She joined our group in August 2022. Dr. Anderson serves as the biostatistician on the grant and a member of the training faculty but she is not a primary mentor. It is expected that Dr. Anderson will meet with every trainee, providing guidance about statistical design, analysis, and statistical programming.<\/p>\n
Edward Barnes, MD, MPH<\/a>. Dr. Barnes completed internal medicine training at UNC and his GI training at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital.\u00a0 He received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.\u00a0 He returned to UNC for advanced IBD training prior to joining the faculty.\u00a0 In this application he has been promoted from junior mentor to full mentor.\u00a0 He has a particular interest in improving outcomes for patients with inflammatory bowel disease who require a colectomy and an ileal pouch-anal anastomosis. Dr. Barnes has developed new research strategies to identify risk profiles for those patients at greatest risk for adverse outcomes to improve the effectiveness of available therapies for pouch-related disorders.\u00a0 He was awarded the 2021 Sherman Prize.\u00a0 He is funded by a K23 from NIDDK.<\/p>\n Sidney Barritt, MD, MSCR<\/a> joined the GI faculty after serving as a trainee on this award. He is chief of the hepatology section within the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is a transplant hepatologist with a special interest in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, general hepatology, and liver transplantation.<\/p>\n Erica Brenner, MD, MSCR<\/a>. Dr. Brenner is a recent graduate of this training program and will serve as a junior training faculty member. She completed pediatric residency, fellowship and advanced IBD fellowship at UNC. She was selected for the UNC Physician Scientist Program which offers her guaranteed protected time and additional resources.\u00a0 <\/strong>She has also been awarded a pilot study from the DDRCC. Her research is focused on prevention, patient-centered research, and clinical outcomes among patients with inflammatory bowel disease. During the pandemic she co-founded an international collaborative database that provided essential information on covid outcomes in IBD patients with a number of high-profile papers.<\/p>\n Cary Cotton, MD, MPH.<\/strong><\/a> Dr. Cotton was first supported on this training grant with a 2-year medical student supplement leading to an MPH from the Gillings School of Public Health.\u00a0 During GI fellowship he was also supported on this grant and has been enrolled in the doctoral program in the Department of Epidemiology with the goal of receiving a PhD.\u00a0 He joined the GI Division faculty in January 2023.\u00a0 His research primarily concerns the application of modeling techniques for the management of Barrett\u2019s esophagus and eosinophilic esophagitis.<\/p>\n Evan Dellon, MD MPH<\/a>,. Dr. Dellon joined the UNC faculty in 2008 after obtaining an MPH degree on this training grant. He is currently funded by two R01\u2019s from the NIH. He is the Director of the UNC Center for Esophageal Diseases and Swallowing. His major research interest is in eosinophilic esophagitis. In particular, he has active investigations in both etiologic and clinical epidemiology on this topic.<\/p>\n Swathi Eluri, MD, MSCR.<\/strong><\/a> Dr. Eluri was a resident at Johns Hopkins.\u00a0 She received training in gastroenterology and advanced swallowing at UNC supported by this training grant.\u00a0 Her\u00a0research interests include improving screening and surveillance practices in Barrett\u2019s esophagus, use of non-endoscopic screening modalities, treatment outcomes in eosinophilic esophagitis and swallowing disorders. She was awarded a research scholar award from the American Gastroenterological Association. She is currently supported by a K23 award titled \u201cApproaches and Outcomes of Shared Decision-making and Patient Centered Care Delivery in Barrett’s.\u201d<\/p>\n Donna Evon, PhD<\/a>. Dr. Evon is a clinical psychologist with research interests that include (a) identifying and understanding psychological, social and behavioral factors associated with hepatitis C, antiviral treatment initiation, and treatment outcomes and (b) developing psychosocial interventions to improve access to care, coping with treatment-related side effects and the stress of antiviral treatment, medication adherence, and persistence on antiviral therapy regimens. She is an expert in qualitative research and patient reported outcomes.<\/p>\n Michael Fried, MD<\/a>,. Dr. Fried previously directed the liver program at UNC. He has been involved with clinical and laboratory studies of hepatitis C since 1990 when he served for three years as a medical staff fellow in the Liver Diseases Section of the National Institutes of Health. Dr Fried has been the principal investigator on numerous Phase I, II and III clinical trials of various antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Since his appointment to UNC in 1998, Dr. Fried continues his commitment to the development of new and more effective treatments for these and other chronic liver diseases. He has received funding from the NIH for investigator-initiated research and has been funded by a K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award. He created an international multicenter longitudinal, observational study of patients being treated for HCV at academic and community medical centers in order to understand the true real-world safety and effectiveness of treatment regimens for hepatitis C (HCV-TARGET).\u00a0 He was awarded me CDER Regulatory Science Excellence Honor Award from the FDA.\u00a0 His role on the grant is to serve as a mentor for trainees interested in clinical trials or clinical research in liver diseases.<\/p>\n Hans Herfarth, MD, PhD<\/a>,. Dr. Herfarth is a gastroenterologist with clinical and research interest and expertise in inflammatory bowel disease. He is the past chair of the Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Foundation Clinical Alliance. He was the PI for \u201cMerit-UC: methotrexate response in treatment of ulcerative colitis\u201d a randomized, double blind, prospective trial that investigated the efficacy of methotrexate in induction and maintenance of steroid free remission in ulcerative colitis (U01DK092239).<\/p>\n Michael Kappelman, MD, MPH<\/a>,. Michael Kappelman is a pediatric gastroenterologist with interests in epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, and health services research in the area of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He joined the UNC faculty after completing fellowships in pediatric gastroenterology and pediatric health services research at Harvard Medical School and a Master\u2019s in Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. His current work is focused on 1) analyzing the utilization of resources and economic impact of IBD, and 2) studying the quality of care in this patient population. He has received research funding from the NIH, AHRQ, CDC, PCORI, foundations, and industry.\u00a0 He currently serves as the PI for two large PCORI-funded research projects: a pragmatic clinical trial in pediatric Crohn\u2019s disease and an observational comparative effectiveness study in adult IBD.<\/p>\n Millie Long, MD, MPH<\/a>,. <\/strong>Millie Long received an MPH while a fellow on this grant. She is currently the fellowship training director in the GI Division. She is chair of the Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Foundation Clinical Alliance and the co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Gastroenterology<\/em>. During her fellowship she also completed board certification in Preventive Medicine. Her research interest is in preventive care aspects of inflammatory bowel disease. She has authored seminal papers on the risk of malignancy associated with IBD therapies.<\/p>\n Jennifer Lund, PhD<\/a>,is a graduate of the program. She is an Associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology with a focus on pharmacoepidemiology. Her research program generates robust evidence on the utilization and effects of medical interventions that will inform decisions made by patients, their caregivers, healthcare providers, and policymakers. She has leveraged clinical trials, disease registries, administrative databases, electronic health records, data linkages, and advanced epidemiologic methods to conduct research investigating: (1) the delivery of high-quality care and (2) the effectiveness and safety of alternative treatment options. She has special expertise working with large administrative databases to address issues in comparative effectiveness.<\/p>\n Andrew Moon, MD, MPH<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>Dr. Moon trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington. He returned to Chapel Hill for fellowship training in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology.\u00a0 He is a former trainee on this grant.\u00a0 Dr. Moon has an interest in epidemiology and outcomes research in liver cancer and cirrhosis. His specific research interests include hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screening, treatment for early stage HCC and addressing post-treatment symptoms through monitoring of patient reported outcomes.\u00a0 He is supported by a career award from the AASLD.<\/p>\n Anne Peery, MD, MSCR<\/a>,\u00a0.<\/strong> Dr. Peery is graduate of the program. She is currently supported on a R01 from NIDDK. Her research focus is on diverticular disease and she has written original research on this topic as well as serving as an author of guidelines from the AGA.14<\/sup> She has also served as the lead author of papers published by our group on the burden of GI disease.9-12, 16<\/sup>The burden paper has involved several prior trainees..<\/p>\n Nicholas Shaheen, MD, MPH<\/a>,\u00a0is a gastroenterologist who received a Master\u2019s in Public Health in Epidemiology from UNC\u2019s School of Public Health as a previous trainee on this grant. He is the current GI Division Chief. His research is in the areas of Barrett\u2019s esophagus, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. \u00a0His current work seeks to better define the risk factors for Barrett\u2019s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma. He has NIH funding for a T35 and U01. He is the co-director of the UNC CTSA. Healthcare utilization issues are especially important in GERD, and a major focus of his work has been the utilization of endoscopy and other healthcare expenditures related to GERD and Barrett\u2019s esophagus. Dr. Shaheen\u2019s role on the grant will be to help mentor current and future trainees, and to identify promising areas for their research.<\/p>\n
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