Anne Marie McCarthy

Anne Marie McCarthy, PhD is an Innovation Faculty member at the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I) and an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The goal of Dr. McCarthy’s research is to reduce the burden of cancer through improved prevention and screening strategies, particularly for racial/ethnic minorities. Her work seeks to integrate genomics into clinical care and to develop tailored prevention strategies based on individual patient risk.

Dr. McCarthy’s current work is focused on implementing precision medicine approaches to breast cancer prevention and early detection. Her work leverages our growing understanding of breast cancer biology and risk by focusing on a key clinical concern – identifying women who are at high risk of having a cancer that is aggressive and likely to be missed by mammography screening who may benefit from supplemental screening. This work is directly aimed at further reducing breast cancer mortality by modernizing approaches to breast cancer screening.

Dr. McCarthy is currently leading a pilot project funded by the Penn Implementation Science Center in Cancer Control to test whether behavioral economics informed nudges to patients and providers increase utilization of supplemental screening with breast MRI for patients with extremely dense breasts.

Anne Marie’s Work

Nudges to Increase Supplemental Breast MRI Screening

• Behavior Change
• Clinical Transformation

Breast SBDOH: Optimizing Collection of Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health Data in Breast Cancer Care

• Clinical Transformation
• Health Equity

ISC3: Penn Implementation Science Center in Cancer Control

• Behavior Change
• Clinical Transformation
• Health Equity