Head & neck cancer survivorship
Van Cleave receives NCI supplement to study urban/rural service disparities
Physical therapy, nutritional support, psychological counseling, and other services can be vital to improving quality of life for patients who are diagnosed with head and neck cancers. Janet H. Van Cleave, PhD, RN, FAAN, an associate professor at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, will use a new grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to explore differences in survivorship services available to patients living in urban and rural areas.
Her project, “Assessing and Enhancing Survivorship Care in Rural and Urban Patients with Head and Neck Cancer,” will be funded by one-year, $72,000 supplement to her R01 grant, “Implementing the NYU Electronic Patient Visit Assessment (ePVA) for Head and Neck Cancer in Rural and Urban Population.”
“Providers in the Texas Medical Center treat patients at all economic levels who live in environments that range from densely populated urban centers to remote rural areas,” said Van Cleave, the Suzie Conway Endowed Professor. “This pilot project will lay the groundwork for larger studies in the future to tailor head and neck cancer survivorship services to the specific needs of urban and rural patient populations.”
Serving as co-investigators are Ron Karni, MD, and Susan Fenton, PhD, RHIA, ACHIP, FAMIA. Karni is an associate professor and division chief of head and neck surgical oncology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston as well as physician lead for Memorial Hermann Cancer Centers. Fenton is vice dean for education and the Doris L. Ross Professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston.
Karni’s team treats patients from his office in Texas Medical Center and at other locations throughout the Greater Houston area. Some people travel as far as 250 miles for appointments that typically include visits with rehabilitation physicians, speech and language pathologists, and other providers who specialize in helping head and neck cancer patients with symptoms such as swallowing and vocal difficulties, range of motion deficits, and the psychological effects of survivorship.
“Dr. Karni’s group sees patients from a broad geographical area and sends them back to the community, but he may not know until their next appointment three months later whether they have been able to access services,” Van Cleave noted.
Through the descriptive research project, the investigators will review records of 250 patients who live in seven urban counties with metro areas of more than 50,000 people and six less-populated counties. They will also interview patients, clinicians, and administrators to identify barriers to accessing survivorship care and to assess alignment of processes, policies, and evaluation/assessment metrics with the recently developed Nation Standards for Cancer Survivorship Care.
“Dr. Van Cleave brings great expertise and new models in survivorship care for head and neck cancer patients,” Karni said. “We look forward to working with her to improve our patients’ experiences during and after cancer treatment.”
