The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently announced the first-ever recipients of its Quality Care Symposium Merit Awards. This year’s recipients will be recognized at ASCO’s inaugural Quality Care Symposium, taking place November 30 and December 1 in San Diego.
“The Conquer Cancer Foundation is thrilled to honor these researchers for their work in identifying solutions and strategies to improve the quality of cancer care,” said Martin J. Murphy, DMedSc, PhD, Chair of the Foundation Board of Directors. “The rapidly changing environment in oncology practice has created a unique opportunity for the Conquer Cancer Foundation to support research examining quality of care, which has a tremendous impact on improving outcomes and patient care.”
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Merit Awards are designed to promote clinical cancer research by young investigators and provide them with the opportunity to present their research at ASCO’s Quality Care Symposium. The Symposium brings together researchers, patient advocates, health system administrators, and practicing physicians to share results in measuring and improving the quality of cancer care. Merit Award recipients are selected based on the scientific merit of their abstracts and receive funding to help with travel expenses to attend the meeting.
This year’s awardees include:
- Jeffrey Cao, MD, MBA, FRCPC, London Health Sciences Center: Categorization of measures of quality in radiation treatment
- Laura Chin-Lenn, MBBS, University of Calgary: Using quality indicators to monitor changes in adherence to clinical practice guidelines for treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast
- Nathan Connell, MD, Brown University Oncology Group: Assessment of the effectiveness of a pre-chemotherapy teaching session: A Brown University Oncology Group study
- Sinead Cuffe, MD, Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto: Cancer patients’ and physicians’ preferences for decision making regarding pharmacogenomic testing (PGT)
- Brendan Curley, DO, MPH, Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University: Patient understanding and impression of hematology/oncology fellows
- Isabella Glitza, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Attrition rates, reasons and predictive factors in supportive/palliative oncology clinical trials at a comprehensive cancer center
- Alex Haynes, MD, MPH, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Socioeconomic and clinical factors associated with delayed initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer
- Maria Ho, MD, BC Cancer Agency – Vancouver Centre: Improving the quality of abstract reporting for economic analyses in oncology
- Joseph Klink, MD, Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Cleveland Clinic: Nomogram predicting treatment-related urinary incontinence for men with localized prostate cancer treated by radical prostatectomy (RP), external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT), or brachytherapy (PI)
- Naomi Ko, MD, MPH, Boston University Medical Center: The impact of patient navigation on receipt of quality breast cancer treatment in the national patient navigation research program
- Aaron Mansfield, MD, Mayo Clinic: Skin cancer surveillance and malignancies in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
- Petra Martin, MD, St. Vincent’s University Hospital: Use of iPad technology to determine cancer patient- reported preferences for and understanding of pharmacogenetic testing (PGT)
- Mark Mishra, MD, Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University: Natural language processing (NLP) of Internet conversations to evaluate prostate cancer (PC) patients’ perceptions of active surveillance (AS)
- Andrew Moore, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Morbidity, mortality, and improvement (MM&I) conference leading to change
- Sarah Mougalian, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Feasibility and savings of a suspicion of cancer clinic at a large county hospital
- Manali Patel, MD, Stanford University Medical Center: Can equitable care eliminate colon cancer disparities?
- Anjana Ranganathan, MD, University of Pennsylvania: Documentation of code status at an outpatient academic cancer center: A marker of discussing end-of-life preferences
- Sonia Reichert, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine: Compliance to select quality measures in a non-QOPI subspecialty academic practice: A pilot quality improvement initiative
- Rakesh Roy, MD, ECMO, Dip Pall Med (UK): Information technology transforming quality of cancer care in developing nation
- Yvonne Sada, MD, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center: The effect of gaps in chemotherapy on survival in patients with high-risk stage II and stage III colon cancer
- The Quality of Care Symposium Merit Awards are supported by Amgen, Astellas, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene Corporation, Lilly USA, LLC, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, Novartis Oncology, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. ■
