Rodriguez Lab Research Focus

Elisa M. Rodriguez, PhD, studies the social determinants and behavioral factors that influence racial and ethnic minority health status and health outcomes related to chronic disease conditions, as well as cancer prevention and control efforts among medically underserved populations.

A common thread through all her research interests is her commitment to addressing existing health disparities through innovative and collaborative research approaches that reach across disciplines and facilitate the translation and dissemination of findings into the community.

Implementation of Evidence-Based Strategies to Optimize HPV Vaccination in Rural Primary Care Settings

Dr. Rodriguez currently leads an implementation science intervention study for rural primary care practices that considers community, culture, and health systems as upstream factors to increase adolescent HPV rates by engaging the entire medical team using a practice facilitation approach.

The study will test the effectiveness of an office-based intervention, with a 12-month practice facilitation approach using evidence-based strategies, to increase rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among 9-18-year-olds in rural Western and Central New York.

Related research

Lollier A, Rodriguez EM, Saad-Harfouche FG, Widman CA, Mahoney MC. HPV vaccination: Pilot study assessing characteristics of high and low performing primary care offices. Prev Med Rep. 2018 Mar 13;10:157-161. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.03.002.

PubMedFull text article

Mixed-Methods Cancer Prevention Research in Primary Care Settings

By applying mixed-method approaches that integrate qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses, Dr. Rodriguez assesses relevant stakeholder attitudes, behaviors, and the influence of social determinants with respect to a variety of cancer prevention topics including HPV vaccination, smoking cessation and cancer screening.

She aims to address health disparities and improve public health through the translation of effective educational cancer prevention interventions to ameliorate a variety of health behaviors that impact cancer prevalence in both community and primary care settings.

This work represents a foundation of implementation-focused research to support the development and testing of evidence-informed cancer prevention interventions in diverse rural and urban settings.

Studying Patient and Caregiver Perspectives to Inform Intervention Implementation and Improve Outcomes

Related to her expertise in community-based participatory research using mixed-method approaches, Dr. Rodriguez has collaborated on studies to engage patients and stakeholders to understand both the patient and caregiver experience across the cancer care continuum.

Together with her colleagues, she has documented these unique patient and caregiver perspectives and experiences to help identify gaps in care, as well as patient-informed opportunities for cancer survivorship interventions to improve patient outcomes.

Fostering Patient Engagement in Science, Scientific Messaging, and Health Communications  

Using participatory research methods, Dr. Rodriguez has worked in collaboration with diverse patients and caregivers as advocates to build capacity and develop and implement training initiatives, engaged research approaches, and health communications content across a variety of platforms to expand reach in cancer patient populations.

The Research Oncology Community Knowledge program, or ROCKstars, is an example of these community research collaborations and capacity building efforts in action. This program gives cancer survivors a chance to share their stories and influence how doctors and researchers design cancer treatments.

ROCKstars is a diverse and inclusive program that creates a pathway for underserved and underrepresented survivors, patients and caregivers to have a seat at the table when it comes to influencing research, safeguarding and improving patient care and comfort, and expanding representation in cancer studies and trials.

Teaming up with ROCKstars to fuel discovery

“…we’ve seen firsthand the impact ROCKstars has on both the researchers and advocates and the innovative science they are working on together.”

Read more

Engaging Underserved Populations in Community-Based Research Methods and Biospecimen Science

Dr. Rodriguez has either led or been a collaborator on several community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects that have shown success in engaging medically underserved communities in culturally appropriate health promotion and education programs related to chronic conditions and cancer prevention and control.

CBPR is a novel approach with respect to the areas of public health and biomedical research studies. Using her experience with the methodology, Dr. Rodriguez developed an innovative approach to CBPR to expand the application of these methods to engage diverse and medically underserved communities in cancer genomics as well as reveal their interest in participating in biospecimen donation.

This work emphasized a lack of awareness among community participants regarding the research topics and uncovered a willingness to participate once they understood the purpose of the study and were asked to participate in the research.

This research also represents formative efforts within this field inclusive of minority populations and their perspectives on cancer genomic studies to address cancer health disparities and their interest in participating in biospecimen donation.

Connect with the Rodriguez Lab

Email: Elisa.Rodriguez@RoswellPark.org
Phone: 716-845-5953
Fax: 716-845-8487

Department of Cancer Prevention and Control
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo, NY 14263