Affectionately called “DocStars,” The Cary Council’s Early-Stage Research Grant recipients are leading medical progress forward. Since its founding in 2015, The Cary Council has awarded 24 Early-Stage Research Grants worth $1.2 million. To date, that initial investment has garnered more than $30 million in follow-on funding. Robin T. Higashi, Ph.D., received the Early-Stage Research Grant from The Cary Council in 2022 for her project that aimed to accelerate telehealth care for patients with cancer in underserved populations or geographic locations.
2025 Update from Robin T. Higashi, Ph.D.
Robin T. Higashi, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s O’Donnell School of Public Health, whose current research focuses on digital health technology and implementation science. Specifically, Dr. Higashi, who has a Ph.D. in medical anthropology, investigates and proposes solutions to the system- and patient-level barriers that prevent equitable health outcomes among underserved populations. She has also conducted research to assess and address disparities in cervical and colorectal cancer prevention in urban minoritized populations, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) access for formerly incarcerated persons, and the cancer care needs of uninsured individuals living in rural areas. In 2022, Dr. Higashi received an Early-Stage Research Grant from The Cary Council to study and improve telehealth access for underserved patients with cancer in the Dallas-Redbird area.
Dr. Higashi notes how significant the Early-Stage Research Grant has been to her career. Before earning the award, she had only ever acted as a Co-Investigator on other investigators’ grants. As she states, The Cary Council’s investment “marked the first time in my career in which I was now the Principal Investigator, leading my own team.” The grant helped Dr. Higashi gain crucial leadership experience and credibility, which aided her in landing additional grants to conduct research that ultimately improves patients’ access to health care.
Since being named a DocStar through The Cary Council, Dr. Higashi earned a $750,000 award as the Principal Investigator on a grant from Texas Health Resources to investigate the barriers that prevent Spanish-speaking patients from effectively using Epic’s MyChart, the patient health portal used by hospitals across the United States. Through this research, Dr. Higashi and her team determined that training patients and clinicians to use a text messaging intervention would be the most effective way to increase patients’ uptake and use of MyChart, by timing it with key events in the clinical process, such as check-in for appointments and test resulting. They are currently working with the Information Resources group to evaluate the effectiveness of the automated text message intervention that was launched this year. Dr. Higashi is also recruited to serve in the Lead Qualitative Investigator role on several other significant studies with investigators from across UTSW. She credits her recognition by The Cary Council with raising her visibility within the university, leading many colleagues to seek out her expertise.
Dr. Higashi recognizes the critical role that philanthropy plays in advancing medical research and how impact-driven groups like The Cary Council “bring together promising early scientists and generous individuals, all of whom are invested in moving the needle forward for people in our community.” She describes this process as “teamwork toward scientific discovery,” noting how philanthropists are in a unique position to support the research that most resonates with them, in turn helping researchers make important advances in their fields. As Dr. Higashi reflects on the impact of The Cary Council and the long-standing effects that their Early-Stage Research Grants provide to medical investigators, she recognizes and appreciates the care in which they make their investment selections, stating, “I am grateful that they chose to promote greater health equity by supporting me.”
Meet All of the DocStars
Learn more about all of the researchers who have been awarded The Cary Council’s Early-Stage Research Grant.
