BU researcher awarded NIH grant to address disparities for firearm violence victims

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 3, 2025
Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu

BU Researcher Awarded NIH Grant to Address Disparities for Firearm Violence Victims

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            (Boston)—Dane Scantling, DO, MPH, FACS, assistant professor of surgery at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has received a three-year, $500,256 K08 grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to fund his project, “Improving access to trauma care for victims of firearm violence.”

Firearm injuries have become a leading cause of death in the U.S. and disproportionately affect non-white and socioeconomically disadvantaged Americans. “There is a strong relationship between rapid access to trauma care and survival after a gunshot wound, but there is also a strong relationship between survival and race, poverty and diminished geographic access to these same centers,” explains Scantling, who also is a trauma surgeon and a surgical critical care intensivist at Boston Medical Center.

This research aims to use geospatial (data associated with a particular location) methodologies to identify non-trauma center hospitals which, if converted to a trauma center, could narrow disparities in access to care for shooting victims and estimate the potential lives saved.

Scantling began his medical career as a firefighter and paramedic. He then received his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, followed by a general surgery residency at Drexel University and a fellowship in surgical critical care at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Scantling’s interests include firearm violence, access to trauma care and improving trauma outcomes. His research has been supported by the American College of Surgeons (C. James Carrico, MD, FACS, Faculty Research Fellowship for the Study of Trauma and Critical Care), the National Institutes of Health (Health Disparities LRP from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities) and the Stepping Strong Foundation.