# (2/2) Pacific Island Partnership for Cancer Health Equity (PIPCHE)

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF GUAM · 2024 · $325,303

## Abstract

Specific Aims
 This supplement application addresses the need to better prepare researchers in Guam and
Micronesia, particularly in data science, so they can pursue careers in cancer health disparities and other
biomedical fields. Pacific Islanders are extremely underrepresented in the nation’s biomedical workforce, both
on the faculty of universities and research institutions as well as in hospitals and public health departments.
The limited number of Pacific Islanders with graduate degrees continues to impede progress in research and
prevention of cancer health disparities. The Pacific Island Partnership for Cancer Health Equity (PIPCHE) is
the National Cancer Institute’s only U54 partnership that advances cancer health equity in Pacific Islands
Populations (PIP). PIPCHE’s overarching goal is to promote cancer health equity and mitigate the impact of
cancer on PIP through increasing cancer research leadership and capacity in Hawai‘i, Guam and the USAPI.
The University of Guam (UOG) is the minority-serving institution (MSI) within PIPCHE and is a USDA land-
grant institution whose student population is 90% Asian Pacific Islander, of whom 51% are native Pacific
Islanders. UOG is uniquely situated to recruit and inspire future professionals from these Pacific Islander
groups as well as conduct research with the diverse communities living in Guam and other Micronesian
islands.
 The current goal of PIPCHE’s Research Education Core (REC) is to train graduate students committed
to addressing health disparities in Pacific indigenous populations. Despite the success of the PIPCHE-REC in
training PIP students to pursue and complete graduate degrees, there remains a dearth of researchers
competent in data science in Guam. Additionally, UOG has limited faculty with expertise in math, statistics, and
data science, all burdened with full teaching schedules. Furthermore, UOG graduate students funded by
PIPCHE-REC extensively utilized PIPCHE's Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) for thesis project data
analysis due to their limited experience in statistics and data science. A new graduate program in Data
Science has been developed at UOG, which would equip students with the technical skills to collect, manage,
analyze, and interpret data, and will also be proficient in programming languages such as R and Python, and
statistical analysis tools such as SAS and SPSS. The anticipated start of the program is Fall 2024.
 The proposed supplement seeks to support the establishment of a Data Science Center at the UOG,
designed to complement the MS in Data Science program and bolster the region's data science capabilities.
Integral to this program is the mandatory capstone course entitled "Statistical Research and Consulting."
Within this course, students will undertake internships at the Data Science Center, engaging in collaborative
projects with UOG researchers or partnering with government agencies. The Center will serve as a hub for
additional support, offering stu...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11063960
- **Project number:** 3U54CA143728-15S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF GUAM
- **Principal Investigator:** Margaret P Hattori
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $325,303
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2009-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11063960

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11063960, (2/2) Pacific Island Partnership for Cancer Health Equity (PIPCHE) (3U54CA143728-15S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-02 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11063960. Licensed CC0.

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