Assistant Professor and Surgical Director of the Liver Transplant Program Robert Cannon, M.D., FACS, was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH)K08 Grant. 

The award will fund his project, “Geographic Variation in Non-HCC MELD Exceptions and Its Effect on Liver Transplant Waitlist Outcomes.” The award amount is over $800,000.

According to the NIH, the purpose of the K08 award is to provide individuals who have a clinical doctoral degree with an intensive, supervised, research career development experience. Data-based studies are also appropriate within the funding program.

Cannon will have support on the grant project from the UAB Transplant Epidemiology and Analytics in Medicine (TEAM) Lab, whose mission is to enhance knowledge within the field of transplantation by conducting complex statistical analyses that model transplant outcomes and practices and behavioral research that focuses on eliminating health disparities in transplantation.

 “Researching transplant waitlist policies has major, real impact on the lives of patients in line to receive a life-saving organ transplant,” said Cannon. “UAB TEAM lab seeks to discover the most equitable system of organ allocation, and this is a step in the right direction.”