Augusta SPH wins $50,000 PACELINE grant, UAE oncology clinics should track survivorship gaps

Augusta University School of Public Health has secured a $50,000 PACELINE grant to study barriers faced by cancer survivors in rural Greene County, Georgia, a small US project with a direct lesson for UAE oncology operators: survivorship care fails when follow-up scans, transport, insurance approval and patient navigation are treated as separate problems.

The highest-stakes readers are COOs, CFOs and medical directors. In Dubai, clinics licensed by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) need survivorship pathways that can move patients between oncology consultation, imaging, laboratory testing and referral without missed follow-up. In Abu Dhabi, providers answer to the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DOH). In Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, licensing sits with the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP).

What Augusta is testing

The grant runs from July 2026 to June 2027, according to Augusta University. The team will gather qualitative data from patients and providers about financial, transport and distance barriers to cancer survivorship care in Greensboro, Georgia, which sits between Augusta and Atlanta.

Sejong Bae, PhD, professor and chair of biostatistics, data science and epidemiology at Augusta SPH, is contact principal investigator. Steven Coughlin, PhD, professor and programme director, and Marlo Vernon, PhD, associate professor of health management, economics and policy, are multiple principal investigators. David Ringer, MD, chief executive of Oconee Valley Healthcare, serves on the community advisory board.

“We’ll share what the patients report and what the healthcare providers report with our community partners, and that'll be very useful for them in planning healthcare in their local community,” Steven Coughlin, PhD, professor and programme director at Augusta SPH, said.

The study focuses on breast, colorectal, prostate and lung cancer. The team will ask whether patient navigators, telehealth and expanded local services could keep survivors on schedule for surveillance and screening. The researchers also plan to use the data to support a larger National Institutes of Health R01 application.

Why UAE operators should care

The UAE has a different geography, but the operating problem is familiar. A patient in Dubai may complete chemotherapy in one facility, imaging in another and genetic counselling in a third. A patient in Fujairah or Ras Al Khaimah may need referral into Dubai, Sharjah or Abu Dhabi for subspecialty oncology. The risk for operators is operational leakage: missed scans, delayed authorisations and avoidable emergency presentations.

For private clinics and hospital groups, the practical checklist is short:

• Map every survivorship pathway by cancer type, starting with breast, colorectal, prostate and lung cancer.
• Record the payer step for each follow-up MRI, CT, PET-CT, colonoscopy, tumour marker and oncology review.
• Check whether Daman, Thiqa and Sukoon patients need different pre-authorisation documents for the same follow-up episode.
• Assign one accountable navigator for each active survivorship patient, with missed-appointment calls within 48 hours.

Do not publish a survivorship package price unless the clinic can show what is included. Oncology consultation, imaging, laboratory work, pathology review and systemic therapy authorisation are billed differently across hospitals and payer networks. CFOs should pull the current tariff from each contracted insurer portal and compare it with their own claims denials over the past 12 months.

The patient story behind the grant

Coughlin’s role is personal as well as academic. Augusta University reported that he was diagnosed in June 2026 with stage 1 hepatocellular carcinoma after an alpha-fetoprotein blood test rose and an MRI found a small liver tumour. His tumour was treated with Y90 embolisation on 26 August 2026, after a multidisciplinary tumour board reviewed the case.

“I thought that my story would offer hope to other cancer patients and cancer survivors because I’ve learned a lot about treatment options for early stage hepatocarcinoma, and they include curative treatments,” Coughlin said.

For UAE medical directors, the point is clinical governance. Survivorship protocols should state when patients need imaging, when genetic evaluation is indicated and when a case returns to tumour board. Vernon told Augusta that some survivors of breast, prostate or colorectal cancer may have inherited genetic risk factors and may need appropriate screening.

The next UAE question is implementation. DHA, DOH and MOHAP-licensed oncology providers should audit whether survivorship follow-up is owned by the oncologist, a nurse navigator, a family medicine physician or the patient. Insurers should ask the same question before rejecting follow-up imaging as routine. Patients and operators looking for licensed oncology providers should start with the UAE Open Healthcare Directory and verify each provider’s regulator, specialty licence and insurance network before booking.