The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) today released its annual 

 report, including actionable strategies in eight key areas: payer-driven challenges, patient engagement, new care delivery models, workforce issues, business intelligence (BI) solutions, artificial intelligence (AI) clinical decision support tools, precision medicine, and research and clinical trials. This year’s annual report is built around key insights from a series of facilitated interactive discussions with provider and industry members at the ACCC 49th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit.

With most cancer programs facing workforce shortages, improving recruitment and retention, addressing burnout, and improving morale and resiliency are top of mind for leadership.

Educating and empowering patients so that they trust and feel connected to their cancer care team can improve access, health equity, and patient outcomes.

Payers continue to implement strategies—like prior authorization—that are burdensome to providers and patients, negatively impacting clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.

COVID-19 accelerated adoption and expansion of new care delivery models, like virtual visits and remote patient monitoring, helping providers better meet the needs of underserved patients.

BI tools and technology can streamline clinic workflow and processes, improve business and financial operations, and mitigate workforce shortages by automating manual processes.

AI is supporting consensus-driven clinical pathways, processes to measure and report adherence to evidence-based guidelines, and algorithms to help identify at-risk patients.

Oncology is working to enroll diverse patients into clinical trials, make clinical trial participation standard of care, and spur adoption of new models, like decentralized and virtual clinical trials.

New roles, like precision medicine stewards, are rapidly spurring adoption of precision medicine, bringing this care into all communities so that all patient populations may benefit.

“This year’s Trending Now in Cancer Care report reinforces that we have no shortage of creative solutions to many challenges in cancer care delivery,” said Olalekan Ajayi, PharmD, ACCC president. “Now we must take these proposed solutions and put them into action in cancer programs across the country. Leadership should analyze these insights to understand what strategies they can implement to improve the patient and provider experience.”

To mitigate physician shortages or coverage gaps

: Hire additional advanced practice providers, like medical assistants and pharmacists, to manage tasks such as patient education and symptom management.

: Create funding streams to build percentages of time that staff can devote to programs and processes that address burnout and build resiliency so it’s not just activities that staff work on in the evenings or on weekends.

: Partner with patient advocates and community health workers. Advocates can assist with health literacy, benefit issues, social determinants of health and barriers to care. Community health workers help providers build trust in that community and educate communities about cancer, especially when providers and resources are scarce.

To improve the payer-provider relationship

: During contract negotiations, providers should educate payers about new oncology drugs coming to market, the high price tags of these new therapies, and their benefits, like increased life expectancy and/or improved quality of life.

 Establish a single point of contact, generally a nonclinical staff member, to oversee the molecular testing process from start to finish.

Trending Now in Cancer Care Parts 1 and 2 are available online at: 

https://www.accc-cancer.org/home/about/publications/trends

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is the leading education and advocacy organization for the cancer care community. Founded in 1974, ACCC is a powerful network of 30,000 multidisciplinary practitioners from 1,700 hospitals and practices nationwide. As advances in cancer screening and diagnosis, treatment options, and care delivery models continue to evolve, so has ACCC. ACCC continually adapts its resources to meet the changing needs of the entire oncology care team. For more information, visit 

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The Association of Community Cancer Centers today released its annual Trending Now in Cancer Care report, including actionable strategies in 8 key areas. 

ACCC Releases Trending Now in Cancer Care 

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is announcing the release of a new tool intended to facilitate education and adoption of new clinical and technological advancements in diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cancer. Referred to as the 

, this tool offers resources for the multidisciplinary care team to use to support adoption of innovations, emerging practices, or establishing guidelines in oncology across disciplines.

Oncology programs and practices are continually challenged to keep pace with rapidly evolving clinical and technological advancements in the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cancer. ACCC created the Oncology Practice Transformation and Integration Center (OPTIC) program to establish a network of multidisciplinary professionals to support ongoing peer-to-peer learning and successful implementation of new therapies and technologies.

“This is ACCC doing what they do better than anyone. They have designed high yield, easily accessible and practical content to help our cancer teams build better and faster. This OPTIC Resource Library is essentially providing ACCC members with the same sort of products we hire consultants for, whether it be on the operations side or clinical. This resource offers something to just about every manager or director in oncology as a one-stop shop for innovation, quality improvement, or best practices.”
– Douglas Flora, MD, LSSBB, Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare

The ACCC Oncology Practice Transformation and Integration Center (OPTIC) program is supported by AstraZeneca.

The Association of Community Cancer Centers is announcing the release of a new tool intended to facilitate education and adoption of new clinical and technological advancements in diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cancer. 

ACCC Releases New Oncology Practice Transformation and Integration Center (OPTIC) Resource Library

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) today jointly released two resources to help research sites increase the racial and ethnic equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in cancer clinical trials.

 Increasing Diversity in Cancer Clinical Research: An ACCC-ASCO Training Program (

 Training Program), and the ASCO-ACCC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Research Site Self-Assessment (Site Self-Assessment) are 

 across the United States, which assessed the feasibility and utility of the resources.

“Increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion in cancer clinical trials is foundational to conducting medical research that can be generalized to and benefit all patients with cancer,” said Association for Clinical Oncology Board Chair Lori J. Pierce, MD, FASTRO, FASCO, who is co-chair of the ASCO-ACCC Steering

“From the outset of this initiative, our goal was to develop practical resources that research sites could readily use to foster meaningful change. Our pilot project demonstrated the value of the training and site self-assessment, and we are delighted that we can now offer them to the broader cancer research community.”

™ Training Program and Site Self-Assessment follows the recent publication of the ASCO-ACCC Research Statement “

Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials

,” which outlines specific actions for individual stakeholders in the cancer clinical trial ecosystem to increase diversity in research participation. The new resources directly address some of the recommendations in the Research Statement.

“With the release of the Training Program, Site Self-Assessment, and Research Statement, research sites can now have a set of cohesive tools to help take concrete, tangible steps that will have a real impact in addressing what has been an intractable problem—the lack of diversity in cancer clinical trials,” said

ACCC Past President Randall A. Oyer, MD, and co-chair of the ASCO-ACCC Steering Group. “Sites can take advantage of the Training Program to support individual members of their research teams, and the Site Self-Assessment to examine and address screening and enrollment barriers at a systemic level. We believe that, by operating at both the individual and system levels, the research community can really begin to move the needle and increase diversity in cancer trials.”

 Training Program to Address Implicit Bias

Studies have found that implicit bias reduces the likelihood of clinicians offering clinical trials to racially and ethnically marginalized patients compared to patients who are White.1-5 However, when trial participation is offered, more than half (55%) of patients agreed to enroll regardless of race and ethnicity.6&

, adapted from a course developed at Duke University, is an online implicit bias training program intended for all members of the research team. It consists of five interactive modules—which can be completed independently in about in 60-90 minutes—that present the broader context of structural and systemic racism, the role of implicit bias in clinical trial selection, vignettes with real-world examples of implicit bias, and guidance for mitigating disparities in cancer research settings. A companion 

 is also available to help sites continue the conversation with the larger research team after taking the training.

ASCO-ACCC EDI Research Site Self-Assessment

The Site Self-Assessment helps clinical trial sites and research teams identify opportunities to improve EDI in clinical trials while doing an internal review of existing policies, programs, and procedures that offer evidence-based strategies to improve the diversity of trial participants. The Site Self-Assessment is a quality improvement tool framed around the clinical trial enrollment continuum, and includes domains related to patient access to the site, screening patients for clinical trials, offering patients clinical trials, and participation and retention in trials. Completion of the Site Self-Assessment enables sites to identify opportunities for improvement. The 

ASCO-ACCC Strategies and Resources List for EDI in Clinical Trials

 also provides suggestions for evidence-based strategies to address these opportunities and references to the literature. Potential strategies include diversifying the workforce, developing sustainable community partnerships, implicit bias training, and routinely collecting screening and enrollment data to assess and address disparities.

The Training Program and Site Self-Assessment resources were revised based on site feedback during the pilot testing period. The findings from the pilot study have been submitted for publication. ASCO and ACCC are pleased to make these resources available free of charge to the entire research community. ASCO and ACCC are eager to receive feedback from the community and plan to continue to enhance and expand the resources.

The development and release of these resources is an important milestone in the ASCO-ACCC Initiative to Increase Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Trials. The initiative is led by a steering group of EDI experts, patient advocates, and other stakeholders. ASCO and ACCC formed a Patient Partners Advisory Group, which also informs the work of the collaboration, and includes cancer research advocates who represent racial and ethnic minority populations. The steering group sought to answer 

 for tangible resources to help improve representation in cancer clinical trials – as evidenced by the eager involvement of 75 research sites in the pilot study. With the Research Site Self-Assessment, Training Program, Facilitation Guide, and 

, it is ASCO and ACCC’s hope that sites feel supported and empowered to make change.

Access these resources and learn more about the 

 and all of ASCO’s health equity initiatives at 

Niranjan SJ, Martin MY, Fouad MN, et al. Bias and stereotyping among research and clinical professionals: Perspectives on minority recruitment for oncology clinical trials. Cancer 2020; 126(9): 1958-68.

Howerton MW, Gibbons MC, Baffi CR, et al. Provider roles in the recruitment of underrepresented populations to cancer clinical trials. Cancer 2007; 109(3): 465-76.

Moskowitz GB, Stone J, Childs A. Implicit stereotyping and medical decisions: unconscious stereotype activation in practitioners' thoughts about African Americans. Am J Public Health. 2012; 102(5): 996-1001.

Hamel LM, Penner LA, Albrecht TL, Heath E, Gwede CK, Eggly S. Barriers to Clinical Trial Enrollment in Racial and Ethnic Minority Patients With Cancer. Cancer Control. 2016; 23(4): 327-37.

Maina IW, Belton TD, Ginzberg S, Singh A, Johnson TJ. A decade of studying implicit racial/ethnic bias in healthcare providers using the implicit association test. Soc Sci Med 2018; 199: 219-29.

Unger J, Hershman D, Till C, Minasian L, Osarogiagbon R, Fleury M, Vaidya R. “When Offered to Participate”: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Patient Agreement to Participate in Cancer Clinical Trials. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2020; djaa155. 

https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/113/3/244/5918345

The American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Association of Community Cancer Centers today jointly released two resources to help research sites increase the racial and ethnic equity, diversity, and inclusion in cancer clinical trials.

Association of Community Cancer Centers

Articles

ACCC Releases Trending Now in Cancer Care

ACCC Releases New Oncology Practice Transformation and Integration Center (OPTIC) Resource Library

Diversify Your Cancer Clinical Trials With New Recruitment and Retention Resources