Oncology

Novel educational interventions for community oncologists and patients to optimize renal cell carcinoma outcomes

Duke University respectfully submits this proposal to support an Independent Grant for Learning and Change (IGL&C) designed to achieve improved renal cell carcinoma (RCC) management and outcomes in the community by addressing barriers that challenge patients and clinicians. The low prevalence and rapidly changing therapeutic landscape for RCC make it difficult for community oncologists to gain the requisite experience to treat the disease and it can be daunting for clinicians to fully study the nuanced clinical trial and real world data underlying current guidelines. Despite being central to the care paradigm, patients and their caregivers are minimally engaged. A creative solution is needed. In order to overcome the systems-­‐level gaps identified, our proposed initiative will leverage a sophisticated, engaging learning platform to (1) guide providers through treatment decisions and the management of adverse events (AEs), which are unique to RCC and complicate the delivery of high quality care; (2) leverage a patient-­‐facing portal to provide solutions to improve patient education and insights; and (3) facilitate virtual tumor boards wherein challenging patient cases are presented in order to provide nuanced guidance to clinicians.