President's Theme 2020-2021

Randall A. Oyer, MD, was named the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) President for 2020-2021 at the ACCC 46th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit held March 4-6 in Washington, D.C.

ACCC invites each president to select a theme for their year in office that addresses a timely issue in cancer care through the creation of programs and resources. Dr. Oyer announced that the theme of his presidency will be “Community Oncology Can Close the Gap in Cancer Research.”

“Over the past year ACCC has heard from our members that there are gaps in community research,” said Dr. Oyer. Respondents to ACCC’s “2019 Trending Now in Cancer Care Survey” identified their top three challenges to offering patients with cancer clinical trials as staff resources and training (53%), program infrastructure (50%), and lack of patient understanding of the clinical trials process (46%). Citing these survey findings, Dr. Oyer remarked: “We have a serious imbalance in our clinical trials work. Our patients are in the community, yet the trials are at academic medical centers. And I believe that ACCC is uniquely situated to close this gap.”

Among the plans to achieve this goal outlined by Dr. Oyer were the following:

• Creating a multidisciplinary taskforce to identify staff/program/patient education resources needed to accelerate implementation of clinical trials in ACCC member practices and programs
• Bringing together experts at the 2020 ACCC Institute for the Future of Oncology forum to share best practices and learn more about challenges and barriers to clinical trials adoption
• Developing a series of articles, blogs, and podcasts on effective practices in clinical trials accrual and management.

“We would like to improve our care and access for traditionally underserved communities. We would like to increase sensitivity, awareness, and understanding of the needs specific to geriatric oncology. And we would like to bring precision medicine into the community by understanding how to use the new precision diagnostics and radiology techniques to make sure that our patients have access to these services.”

The resources and tools that will be developed in conjunction with Dr. Oyer’s President’s Theme will be posted to this webpage as they are available.

ACCC Community Oncology Research Institute

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) has established the ACCC Community Oncology Research Institute (ACORI) to build on its existing mission to close the gap in cancer research through optimal oncology partnerships.
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ASCO-ACCC Initiative to Increase Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Trials

ACCC and ASCO are collaborating to increase cancer clinical trial participation among patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The two organizations are currently recruiting 40 oncology research programs to be part of a pilot program testing a site assessment tool and/or an implicit bias training program.
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