Community Site Engagement: Now In SWOG’s E Suite

Most people treated for cancer in the U.S. are seen in community-based sites rather than in academic or NCI-designated cancer centers. The range often heard is that 80 to 85 percent of patients with cancer get their care at such sites.

Similarly, many (by some counts, most) of the participants in both our treatment trials and our non-treatment trials are enrolled by community practice providers.

This new EO role is meant to help increase clinician engagement with SWOG and SWOG trials at these community practice sites, and to help ensure community-based investigators can participate in all stages of study development and execution, from the very beginning.

Their input from conception on should help ensure the trials we design have practical relevance and are feasible for sites of this type, that they will answer critical questions in cancer care and enroll briskly.

Some SWOG research committees are forming – or have already formed – subcommittees dedicated to these goals. The model here, of course, is our lung committee’s community engagement subcommittee (I’ve previously written about this subcommittee).

While the new EO will work with individual chairs to help them embed community engagement goals and activities into their research committee, the EO will also take a bigger-picture approach. This includes nurturing thought leadership in community oncology at SWOG, advocating with the NCI for investment in NCORP and other community sites, and identifying community members who are strong candidates for advancement and leadership opportunities, fostering better integration of community practice providers at all levels in the SWOG leadership structure.

The work of this community engagement leader will become even more critical as SWOG evolves to increase remote care on trials and conduct more decentralized trials.

So, who will fill this new EO position? I announced it at our group meeting plenary two weeks ago, but I’m happy to get a chance to announce it again here – our inaugural EO for community site engagement is Dr. Raymond Osarogiagbon.

Dr. Osarogiagbon is the perfect choice for this position. He is principal investigator for the Minority/Underserved NCORP at Baptist Memorial Healthcare, a community-based system centered in Memphis that extends into six states.

Within the Baptist Memorial system, he has led initiatives to reduce lung cancer mortality that reach communities across Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and beyond – including efforts promoting tobacco cessation, low-dose CT lung cancer screening, and expanded access to clinical trials. Baptist Memorial serves a region with more than 1,200 lung cancer diagnoses each year, so he’s had his work cut out for him.

A member of our lung and cancer care delivery committees, Dr. Osarogiagbon also served on The Hope Foundation’s board of directors, including a term as its chair. Until quite recently, he was a member of the NCI’s Board of Scientific Advisors as well (until that board was abruptly dissolved last month). And although it’s not a formal position, he has long served as a leader of our NCORP site PI sessions at group meetings.

To better appreciate the perspective Dr. Osarogiagbon brings to this EO role, and why he’s the ideal choice for it, check out his San Francisco plenary talk on engaging community healthcare systems and practices. If you didn’t catch it live, I recommend tuning in to our group meeting recordings page to watch it there (SWOG member access only).

I am quite optimistic these changes will contribute to increased community site engagement. Stay tuned!