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Final Program


AT-A-GLANCE PDF

James Burch

Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia, United States

Dr. Burch is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He also is a VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center Investigator and has an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Program. He possesses a PhD degree in Environmental Health Science with a specialization in Epidemiology, and a MS degree in Pharmaceutical Science. His background spans more than 25 years of project management and research supervision in the human population sciences, and he has served as the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Investigator on numerous extramurally funded research grants. He currently serves as PI for a National Cancer Institute sponsored R01 case-control study of sleep and circadian rhythm disruption among screening colonoscopy patients. He was Multi-PI (MPI) for a National Institute of Justice grant that examined the role of shiftwork, overtime hours, and second jobs as disease risk indicators among police officers. He has also led several studies that examined the circadian disruption indicators and sleep disturbances as cancer risk factors, including clock-related genetic and epigenetic markers of breast or colon cancer susceptibility. One of these was a case-control study in India that was the first among non-shift-working women to suggest that extremes in chronotype (morning or evening preference) may confer an increased breast cancer risk. Dr. Burch possesses a professional certification (Certificate of Completion) in heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) from the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance. He is the contact Principal Investigator (PI) of a Department of Defense grant that is examining the efficacy of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback in patients with persistent post-concussion syndrome. He has served as PI/MPI for studies that examined HRVB efficacy in cancer survivors, and in patients with chronic pain or sickle cell disease. He is currently the PI of a VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center Research Accelerator Monies (RAMs) award that is evaluating a telehealth HRVB protocol for improved sleep, stress management, and cancer prevention among firefighters and other emergency responders. He also serves as MPI for the VCU Center for Translational Research in Autonomic Health. In 2008, he received an Excellence in Research award from the South Carolina Cancer Alliance. In 2001, he received a national Merit in Authorship award from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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