At the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) 46th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, held March 4–6 in Washington, DC, Randall A. Oyer, MD, was named ACCC President for 2020–2021. Dr. Oyer announced that the theme of his presidency will be “Community Oncology Can Close the Gap in Cancer Research.”
Respondents to ACCC’s 2019 Trending Now in Cancer Care Survey identified the top three challenges to offering patients clinical trial opportunities as: staff resources and training (53%), program infrastructure (50%), and lack of patient understanding of the clinical trials process (46%). Citing these survey findings, Dr. Oyer remarked: “We have a serious imbalance in our clinical trials work. Our patients are in the community, yet the trials are at academic medical centers. And I believe that ACCC is uniquely situated to close this gap.”
Among the plans to achieve this goal were the following:
- Creating a multidisciplinary taskforce to identify resources needed to accelerate implementation of clinical trials in ACCC member practices
- Bringing together experts at the 2020 ACCC Institute for the Future of Oncology forum to share best practices and learn more about challenges and barriers to clinical trials adoption
- Developing a series of articles, blogs, and podcasts on effective practices in clinical trials accrual and management.
