Interests
Postdoctoral Fellow Research Interest Overview - October 2014
Kristen Fessele, PhD, RN, AOCN®, University of Utah, College of Nursing
Mentor: Ginette Pepper, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of Utah, College of Nursing
Dr. Fessele is a first year postdoctoral fellow in the College’s NINR funded T32 grant for Cancer, Aging and End of Life Care, participating in the distance option from NJ. She has practiced in a number of oncology nursing roles since receiving her BSN in 1991, including as a nurse practitioner caring for patients with breast cancer and those participating in Phase I clinical trials, and as an associate director for the Human Research Services department at an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. She completed a PhD in nursing in 2013 at Rutgers, The State University of NJ with a dissertation project conducted within the NCI’s SEER-Medicare database to identify demographic and clinical predictors of unplanned hospitalizations due to severe chemotherapy toxicity in patients with lung and colorectal cancer. Claims and administrative data alone were not found to provide a sufficiently robust source for this type of inquiry; therefore major goals of the fellowship experience are to:
· Identify and explore in detail the type, potential volume and accessibility of linked genomic and clinical data available in resources available for research inquiry such as the Utah Population Database, University of Utah Enterprise Data Warehouse and others
· Expand personal knowledge related to potential pharmacogenomic predictors of cancer treatment toxicity
· Identify potential interdisciplinary collaborators with expertise in data science, pharmacogenomics, biostatistics and others with interest to explore opportunities in this area
· Design the first steps in a series of research projects to identify candidate genetic variants associated with cancer treatment toxicity and potential interventions stratified by genotype
Clinical or Educational Responsibilities
As a postdoctoral research fellow, I do not currently have teaching or clinical responsibilities. However, prior to enrolling in doctoral studies, I served as an oncology nurse practitioner at the Cancer Institute of NJ and provided frequent educational sessions to staff.