Related Announcements

NOT-CA-22-102 - Notice of Correction for NOT-CA-22-014 "Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research on Interprofessional Teamwork and Coordination During Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment"

PAR-21-190 - Modular R01s in Cancer Control and Population Sciences (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
PAR-21-035 - Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials Grant Program (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
PA-20-185 - NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
PAR-21-038 - Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (Clinical trial not allowed)
PAR-21-341 - Exploratory Grants in Cancer Control (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
PA-20-195 - NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
PA-20-194 - NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)
PAR-20-052 - NCI Small Grants Program for Cancer Research for Years 2020, 2021, and 2022 (NCI Omnibus R03 Clinical Trial Optional)
PA-20-200 - NIH Small Research Grant Program (Parent R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
PAR-20-077 - National Cancer Institute Program Project Applications (P01 Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Purpose

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) highlights the NCI Healthcare Delivery Research Program's interest in receiving applications focused on understanding and improving interprofessional teamwork and coordination during cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Background

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 also identified as a priority in a 2019 workshop focused on the cancer care workforce convened 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 large, distributed teams 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, these interprofessional teams must coordinate care decisions and tasks across inpatient, outpatient, home, community, and tertiary academic settings. Given interprofessional team members are not co-located, teamwork must often occur virtually, using health information technology or other tools (e.g., virtual tumor boards). The effectiveness of interprofessional teamwork and coordination across care settings impacts patient’s clinical outcomes and experience.

Research Objectives

This purpose of this NOSI is to stimulate research that identifies effective strategies for improving interprofessional teamwork and addresses care coordination challenges within care settings and between care settings (e.g., between tertiary care and community settings) or during care transitions (e.g., from inpatient to outpatient 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.

R03s and R21s may support formative work to identify modifiable features of care team structure or teamwork processes associated with cancer-related outcomes; develop and test measures of related teamwork constructs; or develop and pilot test interventions. R01s may support larger observational studies or studies that evaluate interventions designed to improve care quality and patient outcomes by cultivating interprofessional teamwork and coordination during cancer diagnosis and treatment. Applicants are encouraged to identify the specific aspects of teamwork that are being tested to isolate their effects on variability in specified patient outcomes.

Examples of Responsive Proposals Include:

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;
• Advance the measurement of constructs relevant to cancer care delivery research on interprofessional teamwork and care coordination for people being diagnosed or treated for cancer;
• Test interprofessional approaches to reduce disparities in diagnosis and treatment;
• Test interprofessional approaches to improve minority recruitment in cancer clinical trials;
• 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.

Applicants are encouraged to review any non-responsive criteria listed in the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) through which they plan to apply to this NOSI.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after February 5, 2022, and subsequent receipt dates through October 9, 2024.

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

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-22-014 (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 be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

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]

Peer Review Contact(s)

Examine your eRA Commons account for review assignment and contact information (information appears two weeks after the submission due date).

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Crystal Wolfrey
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6277
Email: [email protected]