Research vs. Delivery? Advisors Debate NCI Role In Review of Community Program

From The Cancer Letter, Nov. 21, 2008:

The NCI Board of Scientific Advisors was forced to confront a fundamental question as it reviewed the institute’s pilot project slated to provide $15 million for community hospitals:

Should the institute focus exclusively on research, or should it be spending its dwindling resources on improving the delivery of cancer care to rural and underserved populations?

“That is not research; it’s quality improvement,” BSA member Jane Weeks, chief of the Division of Population Sciences at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said of the signature project of Institute Director John Niederhuber at a board meeting Nov. 6.

The board was never asked to vote yea or nay on the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program. However, at its most recent meeting, BSA heard a status update on the year-old program that gives
$500,000 a year for three years to each of the 10 community hospitals selected to take part.

“If you took $500,000 and pumped it into any center in the U.S., my God, I would hope the quality of
care would get better,” said Weeks. “But that is not a sustainable model.”

For the full story, click on The Cancer Letter Archive at left to download the Nov. 21 issue (subscription or day pass required).
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tags: NCI|  clinical trials