Miami Cancer Institute, LUNGevity Foundation Awarded Grants to Help Expand Lung Cancer Screenings in Underserved Communities

Miami Cancer Institute, in collaboration with LUNGevity Foundation, will receive grant funding to develop and implement a geographically tailored and patient-centric lung cancer screening education program for the Latinx community.

Johnson & Johnson Innovation, in collaboration with the Population Health Research team at Janssen Scientific Affairs, named LUNGevity Foundation and Miami Cancer Institute as awardees in the Advancing Health Equity QuickFire Challenge.

Manmeet Ahluwalia, M.D., deputy director, chief scientific officer and chief of solid tumor medical oncology at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute.

 

“It brings us great joy to be able to offer our patients lung cancer screenings,” said Manmeet S. Ahluwalia, M.D., M.B.A, FASCO, deputy director, chief scientific officer, and chief of medical oncology at Miami Cancer Institute, and Fernandez Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. “As our Institute serves the patients in South Florida, we look forward to bringing quality care to even more patients, those coming from abroad and from low-income communities in South Florida.”

Last year, Janssen’s Population Health Research team and Johnson & Johnson Innovation launched the Advancing Health Equity QuickFire Challenge to move from detection to  interventions to reduce healthcare inequities deeply rooted in communities. 

“It’s a personal mission of mine to address health disparities, specifically in cancer,” said Dr. Ahluwalia. “We feel extremely grateful to bring this program to Miami Cancer Institute and thank LUNGevity for choosing us as a co-collaborator.”

The grant funding comes from a total pool of $400,000 for organizations, such as LUNGevity Foundation, to launch programs and campaigns to fill the health equity gaps on topics of importance to historically marginalized communities. In addition to the LUNGevity Foundation in collaboration with Miami Cancer Institute, others awarded this prestigious honor include the International Myeloma Foundation, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in collaboration with Prostate Cancer Health Education Network (PHEN).

For more information on the Advancing Health Equity QuickFire Challenge, visit here. To learn more about the LUNGevity Foundation and Miami Cancer Institute lung cancer screening education program, visit here.