UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 27

RESE ARCH BRIEFS UAB Receives $16-Million Grant to Reduce Cancer Disparities PATIENT AND FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Patient & Family Resource Center provides a comfortable place to find support. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, our staff can answer your questions about the illness, treatment options and available support services. UAB has received a five-year, $16.6-million renewal grant from the National Cancer Institute for the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Morehouse School of Medicine and Tuskegee University partnership to address cancer disparities among African-Americans. This tripartite research effort, initially funded by NCI as a cooperative grant in 2006, pairs federally designated comprehensive cancer centers such as the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center with institutions of higher learning that historically serve minorities. The collaboration between MSM, TU and the UAB Cancer Center is especially relevant since Georgia and Alabama have high cancer mortality rates. The Cancer Center has a long history as a leader in community outreach, most notably for its work in increasing education and awareness of cancer in minority and underserved populations. “With this competitive renewal, the Partnership will continue to bring the benefits of advances in cancer research to disadvantaged regional patient populations, influencing their lives for decades to come,” says Upender Manne, Ph.D., lead principal investigator. Partnership activities include bench- and community-level cancer research with a goal of understanding the causes for cancer disparities, as well as education and training programs that encourage students, fellows and junior faculty to pursue studies in biomedical sciences. This can include: n Cancer Prevention n Dealing with Side Effects n Clinical Trials n Complementary Therapies Lay Navigation Demonstrates Savings n Stress Management n Spirituality A recent UAB study shows that when older cancer patients were paired with trained nonmedical professionals in the form of “lay navigators,” there was significant decline in health care resource utilization and Medicare costs, providing an innovative model in transitioning to value-based health care on a national scale. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, zeroes in on the influence of lay navigation on Medicare spending and resource use, such as emergency room visits, hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and chemotherapy in the last two weeks of life, to determine the financial implications on the health care system. Over a three-year period, the observational study examined 12,428 geriatric patients, age 65 and older, enrolled in the Patient Care Connect Program through the UAB Health System Cancer Community Network. Comparisons and differences were analyzed between 6,214 navigated and 6,214 non-navigated patients. The study found total costs declined by $781.29 more per quarter per navigated patient for an estimated $19 million decline per year across the network. Inpatient and outpatient costs had the largest decline with $294 and $275, respectively, per patient per quarter. Emergency room visits, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions decreased per quarter by 6 percent, 7.9 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. # K N O W U A B C C C n Support Groups & One- on-One Support n Mindful Meditation n Restorative Yoga n Art Therapy PATIENT & FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER Wallace Tumor Institute, Room 220 For more information, contact Teri Hoenemeyer, (205) 934-5772 [email protected] • U A B . E D U / C A N C E R 25