Sheila Santacroce awarded Dhillon Jordan Shah Innovation Fund award

Congratulations to Professor Sheila Santacroce, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN who has been awarded support from the 2024 Dhillon Jordan Shah Innovation Fund, an endowment intended to encourage and support faculty, students, post-graduates and practitioners working on pilot endeavors in the field of congenital heart defects.  

Sheila’s project is titled: “Feasibility of Medically Tailored Meals for Pediatric Populations at Risk for Disparities in Serious Illness Outcomes due to Inequities in Food-Related Social Drivers of Health” with co-investigators Beth Cosgrove, PhD, RN, PNP-PC, Alice Ammerman, DrPH, Andrew Smitherman, MD, MSc, and Bridgette Thom, MSW, PhD. 

The purpose of the study is to address the disparities in health outcomes among pediatric patients experiencing serious illnesses, such as cancer, who are also affected by food and nutrition insecurity. Dr. Santacroce’s project aims to explore a more holistic model of care that integrates food and nutrition with state-of-the-science clinical care. By focusing on Medically Tailored Meals (MTM)—home-delivered meals customized to the medical needs of individuals facing social and economic barriers to preparing healthy food—the study will investigate whether this “Food is Medicine” approach can improve health outcomes in pediatric populations. Recently, Dr. Santacroce was also awarded an NIH R21 grant for this study. 

Dhillon’s Gift, the Dhillon Jordan Shah Innovation Fund, was created by his maternal grandmother Bev Foster and family at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing to honor the memory of Dhillon Jordan Shah, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a severe congenital heart defect. Dhillon received medical care in three world-class institutions: UNC Health Care, the University of Michigan Health System, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dhillon’s gift honors not only Dhillon but the health professionals who contributed to his care. 

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