NIH to Fund Creation of Telehealth Research Centers for Cancer Care

Four organizations, including NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, will set up telehealth research centers of excellence focused on cancer care using funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Like care for many conditions, the use of telehealth for cancer treatment increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although several aspects remain understudied, virtual care is believed to make significant changes in the lives of cancer patients and providers and can continue to transform healthcare.

To advance research into the use of telehealth to provide cancer care, the NHI's National Cancer Institute (NCI) is providing several organizations with funding to set up centers of excellence. The funding will be provided over five years.

Using the funding, NYU Grossman School of Medicine will set up the Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE) Telehealth Research Center, and the University of Pennsylvania will establish the University of Pennsylvania Telehealth Research Center of Excellence (Penn TRACE).

THRIVE intends to work with the Veterans Health Administration to uncover information about the impact of demographics, like ethnicity and place of residence, on cancer care delivery through telehealth.

Penn TRACE plans to use communication science and behavioral economics to compare various telehealth strategies on how they impact shared decision-making for lung cancer care and improve access to molecular testing for advanced lung cancer.

“These centers will be at the cutting edge of some amazing breakthroughs by creating sustainable and effective telehealth options tailored specifically for cancer care,” said Roxanne E. Jensen, PhD, a program director in the Outcomes Research Branch in DCCPS who is overseeing the TRACE initiative with Dr. Vanderpool, in a press release. “This work will pave the way for having health care delivery look a lot different for cancer patients over the next five to 10 years, and that's really exciting and in alignment with the goals of the Cancer Moonshot initiative.”

The funding will establish the NCI’s Telehealth Research Centers of Excellence (TRACE) initiative, which is supported by the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative.

“One of the Cancer Moonshot goals is to make the cancer experience less burdensome for patients and their families and caregivers,” said Katrina Goddard, PhD, director of NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), in the press release. “We are awarding these centers of excellence to better understand how telehealth can contribute to improved health outcomes across the cancer care continuum.”

The other organizations that received the NCI funding are Northwestern University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Northwestern will launch the Northwestern Program for Scalable Telehealth Cancer Care (STELLAR), which will focus on studying how telehealth can be used to manage and limit behaviors such as smoking and inactivity.

Memorial Sloan Kettering will create the MATCHES (Making Telehealth Delivery of Cancer Care at Home Effective and Safe) Telehealth Research Center. The center will evaluate the quality of virtual cancer care services for those with breast and prostate cancer, including remote patient monitoring and telehealth. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer care was severely disrupted. A study published in February found that missed screening and delays in care led to poor cancer outcomes, including greater diagnoses of more advanced or aggressive stages of cancer.