The National Cancer Institute’s Role in Advancing Health-Care Delivery Research

Abstract

Improvements in cancer care delivery have the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality from cancer, however challenges to delivery of recommended care limit progress. These challenges include growing demands for care, increasing treatment complexity, inadequate care coordination, dramatic increases in costs, persistent disparities in care, and insufficient use of evidence-based guidelines. Recognizing the important role of research in understanding and addressing these challenges, the National Cancer Institute created the Healthcare Delivery Research Program (HDRP) in 2015 as a catalyst for expanding work in this area. Health-care delivery research is a multidisciplinary effort which recognizes that care delivery occurs in a multilevel system encompassing individuals, health-care systems, and communities. HDRP staff use a range of activities to fulfill the program’s mission of advancing innovative research to improve delivery of care across the cancer control continuum. In addition to developing funding opportunities, HDRP staff support and facilitate the use of research infrastructure for conducting health-care delivery research, oversee publicly available data that can be used to evaluate patterns, costs, and patient experiences of care, contribute to development and dissemination of standardized health measurement tools for public use, and support professional development and training to build capacity within the field and grow the workforce. As HDRP enters its sixth year, we appreciate the opportunity to reflect on the program’s progress in advancing the science of health-care delivery. At the same time, we recognize the need for the program to evolve and develop additional resources and opportunities to address new and emerging challenges.

Characteristics of Health Care Settings Where Adolescents and Young Adults Receive Care for ALL

“…Providing care consistent with quality indicators can be intervened on at a system (rather than clinical) level to improve survival. 49 While clinical and biological advances continue in parallel, this avenue provides the potential to impact a large amount of AYAs with ALL. NOTE.…”

A multilevel approach for advancing organizational interventions

“…Federal sponsors increasingly solicit research proposals requiring multilevel considerations (Jacobsen et al, 2021). Solicitations encourage investigators to consider all relevant multilevel factors potentially related to intervention implementation and effectiveness (NCI, 2017).…”

Qualitative exploration of the perceptions of exercise in patients with cancer initiated during chemotherapy: a meta-synthesis

“…In recent decades cancer survival rates in economically developed countries have steadily improved,7–9 often resulting in years of complex treatment programmes, including surgery, radiation, immunotherapy and combined multi-drug chemotherapy with or without subsequent haematopoietic stem cell transplantation 10–12. Antineoplastic (chemotherapy) treatment continues to play a significant role, elevating the risk of symptoms and side effects such as fatigue, pain, physical deterioration, and functional and emotional decline 13–16.…”

“…[3][4][5][6] In recent decades cancer survival rates in economically developed countries have steadily improved, 7-9 often resulting in years of complex treatment programmes, including surgery, radiation, immunotherapy and combined multi-drug chemotherapy with or without subsequent haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. [10][11][12] Antineoplastic (chemotherapy) treatment continues to play a significant role, elevating the risk of symptoms and side effects such as fatigue, pain, physical deterioration, and functional and emotional decline. [13][14][15][16] Concurrently, a significant interest has increasingly taken hold in the role of exercise and supportive care following a cancer diagnosis to reduce the disruption patients with cancer experience in their lives, 17 18 especially in terms of supporting cancer survivorship through secondary and tertiary prevention since avoiding physical…”