Mandi Pratt-Chapman, PhD, associate center director for patient-centered initiatives and health equity at the George Washington University (GW) Cancer Center, and Hannah Arem, PhD, scientific director of implementation science at MedStar Health Research Institute, received a $5 million cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control to help reduce inequities among cancer survivors in Washington, D.C.
Through a multifaceted approach, the research team will employ community health workers to target social factors and conduct anti-racism training to improve quality of life after cancer treatment. By doing so, they hope to better pinpoint and address areas of patient need and decrease discrimination experienced by cancer survivors.
“Despite improvements in cancer outcomes over time, significant disparities remain between Black and white cancer survivors,” said Arem in a Press Releases announcing the project. “We believe the results of this research will play a major role in improving the survivorship of D.C. cancer patients over time, as we better understand the burden of social needs in our community and how to support cancer survivors in addressing those needs.”
The research team is led by GW (Pratt-Chapman) and MedStar Health (Arem), in collaboration with Georgetown University and Howard University.
“I am most excited about identifying and changing structural biases across three cancer care centers in the nation’s capital,” said Pratt-Chapman in a Press Releases. “Through our anti-racism task forces, we hope to help reverse entrenched and growing disparities experienced by communities historically excluded from the health care system. We will work to resolve root causes of inequity while providing immediate relief to patients and families with significant social needs.”
The project, “Scaling Social Determinants of Health Screening, Social Support, and Anti-Racism Training to Reduce Inequities in Minority Cancer Survivor Health and Well-Being in Washington, D.C.,” started in September 2021.
