HJBR Mar/Apr 2022

38 MAR / APR 2022  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs Pennington Biomedical, in partnership with LSU Health New Orleans and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease- Phoenix, plans to enroll more than 2,000 partici- pants in three study modules. Ravussin and Red- man are the primary investigators on the five-year, $8.6 million grant. Scientists at the six clinical sites will follow 10,000 participants while they eat their usual diets. The study will also gather data on 1,500 participants who will follow one of three prescrip- tion diets while living at home. A final group of 500 participants will follow the same diets during stays at clinical sites. Researchers will measure blood sugar levels and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health, such as insulin resistance, blood pressure, and blood lipids. Wearables will be used to track partici- pants’ physical activity and sleep. Researchers will also collect samples of blood, urine, saliva, hair, and stool to assess the impact of people’s diets. “Nutrition for Precision Health brings us a step closer to precision medicine. The study will gen- erate a massive dataset, a wealth of biospecimens and the algorithms that will lead to personalized dietary prescriptions that can promote health, prevent heart attacks or strokes, and importantly, address health disparities,” said Pennington Bio- medical Executive Director John Kirwan, PhD. NIH awarded $170 million over five years, pend- ing the availability of funds, to fund the Nutri- tion for Precision Health program. The program includes six clinical centers, a metabolomics and clinical assays center, a microbiome and metage- nomics center, a multimodal data modeling and bioinformatics center, a research coordinating center, and additional support to existing All of Us infrastructure. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Announces NewDirectors, Angela Hammett andMandy Shipp Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center welcomes two professionals to the organization’s leader- ship team. Angela Hammett, MSN, RNC-OB, LCCE, has been named the director of naviga- tion and support services. Mandy Shipp will serve as the organization’s director of clinical research. Both administrators will oversee teams working on behalf of all eight centers across southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. As director of navigation and support ser- vices, Hammett will take the helm of Mary Bird’s patient navigation system and oversee a team charged with ensuring patients and their fami- lies have the information they need to make the most informed and timely decisions regarding their cancer treatment. Hammett has more than 20 years’ experience providing patient education and outreach in the Baton Rouge community. She most recently served as the community education manager for Woman’s Hospital. Hammett earned a Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Management fromWestern Gov- ernors University in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a founding board member of the Louisiana Chap- ter of Women in Healthcare and currently serves as the organization’s board secretary. Shipp most recently served as director of clinical resources for the Clinical Trials Unit at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In her role as direc- tor, Shipp worked closely with the pharmaceuti- cal industry to broaden study types and phases. Shipp earned a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Louisiana State University and completed a dietetic internship at North Oaks Medical Cen- ter in Hammond. LDHReceives $1.2MCDC Grant Focused on Extreme Heat Protection The Louisiana Department of Health will receive $1.2 million over five years to protect Louisiana workers and communities from extreme heat through a grant from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control’s (CDC) National Insti- tute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The funding will be used to collaborate with local climate agencies, research centers, and community organizations to access, analyze, and interpret climate and health data; provide train- ing and education on heat and health risks; and strengthen Louisiana communities’ climate adap- tation and resilience. The Office of Public Health’s Occupational Health Program leads the project in close col- laboration with key climate and health agen- cies, including Louisiana State Climatologist Barry Keim, MD, LSU Department of Geology and Anthropology, LSU Health Sciences Cen- ter, National Weather Service, Southern Climate Impact Planning Program, Johns Hopkins Bloom- berg School of Public Health and the RAND Corporation. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Louisiana has some of the most at-risk workers in the country due to high heat and humidity, a large percent- age of workers employed in outdoor and phys- ically demanding jobs, frequent natural disas- ters, and high levels of poverty and other social inequities. During periods of high heat, Louisianans who work outdoors or in indoor settings without ade- quate air conditioning are at risk of dangerous heat exposure, which can cause heat exhaus- tion, heat stroke, injuries, multi-organ failure, and, in extreme cases, death. Heat exposure is the leading cause of death among all weather- related phenomena. Extreme heat also leads to loss of productivity and labor capacity. These Angela Hammett, MSN, RNC-OB, LCCE Mandy Shipp