Two research articles involving DUSON faculty and staff were referenced in "The New York Times" article "These Sisters With Sickle Cell Had Devastating, and Preventable, Strokes" by Gina Kolata. The articles are: 

• "Patient‐reported Outcomes in Sickle Cell Disease and Association with Clinical and Psychosocial Factors: Report from the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium" 
  • DUSON-connected authors: Mitchell Knisely, assistant professor, and Rita Masese, associate in research
• "Sickle-Cell Disease Co-Management, Health Care Utilization, and Hydroxyurea Use"
  • DUSON-connected authors: Nancy Crego, assistant professor, Christian Douglas and Elizabeth Merwin, consulting associates, Emily Bonnabeau, former clinical research coordinator, and Paula Tanabe, vice dean, Research

Excerpt

A recent survey funded by the National Institutes of Health of 2,200 sickle cell patients from eight sites found that just 48 percent of patients were taking hydroxyurea regularly. Interviews with doctors who did not prescribe the drug revealed that many were unfamiliar with it while others were afraid hydroxyurea, which is also a cancer treatment at much higher doses, might cause cancer, although at the lower sickle cell dose it does not.

Another recent study, of Medicaid patients in North Carolina, found that only 32 percent of 2,790 Medicaid patients with sickle cell even had a prescription for hydroxyurea and just 31 percent of those patients took the drug regularly.