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Audrey L Blewer

Assistant Professor in Family Medicine and Community Health
Family Medicine and Community Health
Box 104006 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710
2200 West Main Street, Durham, NC 27705

Research Interests


Dr. Blewer's interests lie at the intersection of resuscitation science, epidemiology, health disparities, and implementation science. Her methodological interests include handling missing data in observational and clinical trials and implementation of pragmatic clinical trials.

She has examined how cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training dissemination strategies can be expanded, and tailored to target geographic, racial, and socioeconomic disparities in layperson CPR education and bystander CPR delivery. A recent publication used national data to assess variation in receipt of bystander CPR by neighborhood-level ethnicity. Dr. Blewer is also collaborating with partners in Singapore to improve prehospital emergency care and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Southeast Asia. In her current work, Dr. Blewer is examining dispatch-assisted CPR, bystander CPR and defibrillation, and assessing gender disparities in cardiac arrest. 

Selected Grants


Developing and Testing Drone-Delivered AEDs for Cardiac Arrests In Rural America

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by American Heart Association · 2023 - 2027

CCC: The Regional Approaches to Cardiovascular Emergencies- Cardiac ARreSt (RACE-CARS) Cluster-Randomized Trial 1/2

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2020 - 2027

Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health - BIRCWH

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEScholar · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2002 - 2027

Racial and ethnic disparities in patient outcomes and intra-arrest resuscitation practices for in-hospital cardiac arrest

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by University of Pittsburgh · 2024 - 2026

Assessment Tool for Developing Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Systems

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National University of Singapore · 2021 - 2025

North Carolina Sickle Cell Data Collection

Public ServiceCo Investigator · Awarded by NC Department of Health and Human Services · 2024 - 2024

NCDHHS Sickle Cell Data Collection Program in North Carolina Year 3

Public ServiceCo Investigator · Awarded by NC Department of Health and Human Services · 2022 - 2023

Sickle Cell Data Collection Program in North Carolina - Optional

Public ServiceCo Investigator · Awarded by NC Department of Health and Human Services · 2021 - 2022

Sickle Cell Data Collection Program in North Carolina

Public ServiceCo Investigator · Awarded by NC Department of Health and Human Services · 2021 - 2022

Fellowships, Gifts, and Supported Research


Comparing a mobile virtual reality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training application · 2017 - 2018 co-investigator · Awarded by: HeartRescue Pilot Grant The goal of this project is to compare CPR training with a virtual reality mobile app to training with a video-only app
Increasing nursing motivation to conduct clinical research in a pragmatic clinical trial · 2016 - 2018 co-investigator · Awarded by: Penn CTSA The goal of this project is to assess behavioral economic interventions to increase nursing enrollment for a pragmatic clinical trial.
Using a virtual reality sudden cardiac arrest program to examine bystander response · 2016 - 2017 co-investigator · Awarded by: Laerdal Foundation Project Grant The goal of this project is to examine bystander response during a virtual reality sudden cardiac arrest event
Quantifying the national prevalence and associated disparities of laypersons trained in CPR · 2015 - 2018 principal investigator · Awarded by: American Heart Association The goal of this project is to quantify the national prevalence of CPR training, the correlation between CPR training and bystander CPR delivery, and associated geographic, racial and SES disparities.

External Relationships


  • American Heart Association
  • Duke-National University of Singapore
  • World Point

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.