Dissertation research. "An exploration of the intergenerational persistence of health and social status contributing to racial disparities in birth outcomes in South Carolina." Committee: Nancy Fleischer, PhD, MPH (Chair - Epidemiology), Belinda Needham (Epidemiology), Sasha Killewald (Sociology), Lindsay Admon (OBGYN). Funded by NIH/NIMHD F30 individual fellowship (F30MD019520). 2022-present.
Structural racism and adverse birth outcomes in the US South: A multigenerational perspective (NIH/NIMHD R01MD016046). Graduate Student Research Assistant to Nancy Fleischer, PhD (MPI). Working currently on three papers: (a) investigating influence of vicarious trauma following a mass shooting event on birth outcomes, (b) describing patterns of hospital maternity ward closure, and (c) developing a hierarchical structural equation model of structural racism. 2022-present.
De-implementation of low value surgical care. Predoctoral research fellow in the lab of Lesly Dossett, MD, MPH. Currently developing clinical trial of de-implementation strategies for low-value breast cancer surgical care across the state of Michigan in collaboration with the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative (MSQC) and the U of M Rogel Cancer Center. Additionally studying the persistence overuse of low-value preoperative testing in low-risk surgical settings. 2022-present.
Core Outcomes in Hernia Research (COHR) Lab. Predoctoral research fellow in the lab of Dana Telem, MD. Developed survey methodology to measure long-term patient reported outcomes after hernia repair and integrated data with statewide surgical outcomes database. Currently studying race and sex-based disparities in long-term patient-reported pain after hernia surgery and the role of opioid prescribing patterns. 2023-present.
Masters thesis. "Towards an understanding of the economics of compliance: Restaurant response to the Affordable Care Act Calorie Mandate." Leveraged passage of the ACA calorie mandate as a natural experiment to study trends in corporate compliance with calorie posting in chain restaurants. Advisor: Michael Price, PhD (Economics). 2018-2020.
Undergraduate honors thesis. "Morbidity and mortality in the United States: How inequality produces health disparities, Or, Dying of race and rurality" Advisor: Jason DeCaro, PhD (Anthropology). 2018-2019.
PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, & WORKS IN PROGRESS
AL Kappelman, B Fry, AP Ehlers, SM O’Neill, M Rubyan, J Shao, AK Hallway, DA Telem. Establishing Survey Methodology for Long-term Follow-up of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) in a Statewide Hernia Registry. Delivered oral presentation at Moses Gunn Research Conference (May 2023) and at the 2023 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress (Oct. 2023). Manuscript under review.
AL Kappelman, Z Chopra, N Robinson, LA Dossett. Modeling the Persistence of Low- value Preoperative Testing: An Integrative Literature Review to Aid in De-implementation. Delivered quickshot presentation at the 2024 Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) (Feb. 2024). Manuscript in preparation.
CM Pesavento, R Kazemi, JL Thompson, AL Kappelman, S Smith, T Wang, LA Dossett. Reducing Overtreatment for Older Women with Early-stage Breast Cancer: Pilot Study of a Multi-component Patient-facing De-implementation Strategy. Presented poster at Moses Gunn Research Conference (May 2023). Co-author presented abstract at 2023 ACS Clinical Congress and 2024 SSO. Manuscript under review.
MR Cyan, MT Kasim, AL Kappelman, MK Price. Testing Effective Nudges to Improve Perceptions of and Adherence to Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) in the Setting of COVID-19 in Pakistan. Manuscript in preparation.
AL Kappelman. Stopping Zika and Promoting Women’s Rights. Online policy article published by the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis at The University of Texas at Austin, July 2016. [My work was referenced in the 2016 IUPRA Annual Report.]