Notice Number: NOT-CA-19-059

Key Dates
Release Date: August 8, 2019
First Available Due Date: October 5, 2019
Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

PAR-18-869 - Modular R01s in Cancer Control and Population Sciences (R01 Clinical Trial Optional).

Note: This FOA will expire prior to the expiration date of this NOSI.

PAR-18-559 - Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials Grant Program (R01 Clinical Trial Required).

Note: This FOA will expire prior to the expiration date of this NOSI.

PA-19-056 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed).

PAR-18-290 - National Cancer Institute Program Project Applications (P01 Clinical Trial Optional).

Note: This FOA will expire prior to the expiration date of this NOSI.

Issued by
National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Purpose

This Notice highlights the NCI Healthcare Delivery Research Program s interest in receiving investigator-initiated grant applications focused on understanding and improving interprofessional teamwork and coordination during cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Care coordination challenges are growing as expanding treatment options, multi-modality treatment regimens, and an aging population with comorbidities intensify demands for interprofessional team-based cancer care. Improving interprofessional, team-based cancer care was recently identified as a priority by the National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Planning and delivering comprehensive care during active cancer treatment increasingly involves a large, distributed team often including patients, formal and informal caregivers, oncology specialists and advanced practice professionals, nursing, pathology, imaging, genetic specialists and counselors, primary care, mental health, pharmacists, rehabilitative care professionals, patient navigators, home health, social workers, and others. For many patients, this interprofessional team must coordinate care decisions and tasks across inpatient, outpatient, home, community, and tertiary academic settings. Given team members are not co-located, teamwork must often occur virtually, using health information technology or other tools (e.g., virtual tumor boards).

Research that identifies effective strategies for improving the performance of interprofessional cancer care teams is necessary to address care coordination challenges within and between care settings (e.g., between tertiary care and community settings) and coordination during transition points across the continuum of care. Research in this area should advance actionable knowledge about how to design and carry out effective, efficient interprofessional team-based cancer care that improves quality and patient outcomes. Research that is focused on the needs of racial/ethnic minority, medically underserved, or low-income populations and/or those receiving care in community settings (including, but not limited to, community-based cancer centers or clinics) is not required, but strongly encouraged.

Research encouraged through this Notice includes, but is not limited to, studies that:

• Identify modifiable features of care team structure (e.g., care team composition or organization), associated with differences in cancer care quality and patient outcomes.
• Identify modifiable features of care team processes (e.g., decision making, communication, coordination behaviors, collaboration, leadership) associated with differences in cancer care quality and patient outcomes.
• Identify characteristics at the patient, caregiver, care team, delivery organization, health system, and/or community levels that influence the functioning and effectiveness of interprofessional cancer care teams.
• Develop and test interventions designed to improve cancer care quality and patient outcomes by modifying the structure and/or functioning of interprofessional teams.
• Develop and test interventions designed to improve cancer care quality and patient outcomes by engaging patients and caregivers as members of their cancer care team.

Application and Submission Information:

This Notice applies to due dates on or after September 25, 2019, and subsequent receipt dates through January 8, 2022.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this Notice:

Investigators interested in this mechanism should also see: https://healthcaredelivery.cancer.gov

For other NCI funding opportunities relevant to healthcare delivery research, please visit the NCI Healthcare Delivery Research Program’s Funding Opportunities page.

All applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Sallie Weaver and Veronica Chollette at NCI to discuss the specific aims of their application before submission.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include NOT-CA-19-059" (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Sallie J. Weaver, PhD, MHS
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: (240) 276-6254
Email: [email protected]

Veronica Chollette, RN, MS
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: (240) 276-6969
Email: [email protected]