Even successful methods for diagnosing, treating and caring for people who are suffering from cancer are not enough without effective, practical tools and guidance for putting those methods into practice.
To bridge this gap between cancer interventions and their implementation within communities across the country, the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 is funding the creation of six implementation science centers focused on cancer control. The creation of these centers are part of NIH鈥檚 to make more therapies available and improve prevention and detection. One of the six centers will be at the 91爆料 Department of Health Services, part of the School of Public Health.
鈥淲e have proven health interventions that could significantly reduce the burden of cancer for the 15 million people in the United States who will be diagnosed with cancer over the next decade,鈥� said 91爆料 professor and project lead . 鈥淗owever, these interventions have to be implemented 鈥� and implemented well 鈥� for patients and community members to benefit from them. Unfortunately, health care delivery systems often underperform in implementation.鈥�
The 91爆料鈥檚 center 鈥� titled the Optimizing Implementation in Cancer Control Center 鈥� was awarded a five-year, $4.78 million grant聽from the National Cancer Institute. The new center is a strategic collaboration of the 91爆料, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The center will foster collaboration across the three participating institutions 鈥渢o develop the聽knowledge and tools to support optimal implementation of 鈥榳hat works鈥� in preventing, detecting, and treating cancer,鈥� said Weiner, a professor in the 91爆料 Department of Global Health.
鈥淥ne of the biggest opportunities in implementation science and cancer control is increasing and improving delivery of effective interventions in settings that include health care systems working in underserved communities,鈥� said co-principal investigator , a professor in the 91爆料 Department of Health Services, also in the School of Public Health. 鈥淎nd we are excited to serve those communities through the center鈥檚 research projects and other activities.鈥�
The researchers say the center鈥檚 shared resources and collaborations will more rapidly, efficiently and economically advance the science of implementing proven cancer interventions than a collection of independent studies conducted by researchers in isolation would permit. The center鈥檚 initial studies will focus on optimizing implementation of screening 鈥渆vidence-based interventions鈥� for cervical, colorectal, breast and ovarian cancer.
鈥淗owever, the methods for optimizing 鈥� implementation that the center will develop, test and refine can be applied broadly across the cancer care continuum, for a wide range of cancers,鈥� the researchers wrote in .
, associate investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, is a co-principal investigator in the project.聽, professor of family medicine at the 91爆料 School of Medicine, will co-lead the implementation science center.
Other institutions receiving 鈥溾�澛爂rants are the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Oregon Health & Science University, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Washington University in St. Louis.
For more information, contact Weiner at bjweiner@uw.edu or 206-221-7882