Skip Navigation and Go To Content

Symptom science studies by Meagan Whisenant, PhD, RN

project image

Overview:

Implementing Routine Symptom Monitoring and Management Using Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures to Improve Outcomes in Patients with Breast Cancer

  • Funding: First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Member Awards by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), through 2025.
  • Overview: Whisenant’s team is working to develop systems for collecting real-time symptom data from breast cancer patients in the outpatient setting at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Nellie B. Connally Breast Center.

Characterizing symptoms among subpopulations of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus

  • Team: Principal investigator - Meagan Whisenant, PhD, APRN; Co-investigators - Roberto Arduino, MD; Jordan Lake, MD, and Karen Vigil, MD, from McGovern Medical School, and Tito Mendoza, PhD, and Xin Shelley Wang, MD, from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
  • Funding: Texas Development Center for AIDS Research
  • Overview: This grant funds collection of preliminary data to support future NIH grant applications to identify molecular and genetic contributions to symptom burden, develop interventions for symptom management, and validate a measurement tool that can be used in clinical trials. Learn more.

Simulation-Based Caregiving Skills Training for Family Members of High-Grade Glioma Patients

  • Team: Co-Principal Investigators: Meagan Whisenant, PhD, RN, and Kathrin Milbury, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Co-investigators: Shiao-Pei Weathers, MD, MD Anderson; and Kristin Ownby, PhD, RN, Cizik School of Nursing.
  • Funding: $275,000 R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute
  • Overview: Pilot study testing methods to support caregivers of patients with brain tumors by employing educational materials, two simulation-based caregiving skill sessions led by registered nurses in the Smart Apartment at the Cizik School of Nursing, and two psychoeducation sessions that offer ways to cope emotionally and managing changing roles.

Adherence to chemoprevention among women at high risk for breast cancer

  • Principal Investigator: Meagan Whisenant, PhD, RN
  • Funding: $2,000 Elizabeth W. Quinn Oncology Research Award
  • Overview: Pilot study to increase breast cancer preventive behaviors among women prone to developing the disease and to explore women’s experience when it is suggested they begin chemoprevention.

Research Resources