Grant Number:	5P50CA271358-04 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Sherman, Scott
Organization:	New York University School Of Medicine
Project Title:	Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE)
Fiscal Year:	2025

The rapid uptake of telehealth since the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted not only the potential for telehealth to improve access and quality of care for some but also how telehealth can exacerbate the “digital divide,” increasing differences in care. Social, economic, environmental, and structural factors account for 30-50% of the variance in health outcomes, far more than the 10-20% ascribed to health care. In order to achieve high quality care, it is crucial to understand these factors (e.g., rurality, race/ethnicity and poverty) and how they affect use of telehealth. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) is the largest integrated health care system in the US, providing care to 9 million patients across 171 medical centers and 1,112 outpatient sites. VA provides a unique opportunity to examine what factors affect use of telehealth for cancer across a health care system with equal access and without focus on reimbursement. Therefore, the entire VA system will serve as our clinical practice network for this Center. All three THRIVE PI’s are experts in implementation science and will use the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to guide our understanding of telehealth care delivery for patients with cancer and to explore and understand differences in the quality of care. We propose a Center called Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE), whose overarching aim is two-fold: 1) to understand what factors impact the delivery of telehealth for cancer and 2) to develop methods to address these factors and thereby improve access and quality of cancer care for all patients. THRIVE will focus on four highly important and prevalent cancers within VA: lung, colon, prostate, and breast. Our findings will be extremely valuable in understanding how telehealth implementation affects the quality of cancer care for the entire population and how VA and other US health systems can leverage telehealth to improve cancer outcomes. Our Specific Aims for this Center are: (1) efficiently manage all components of THRIVE, including coordination, communication, fiscal management, recruitment and dissemination (Administrative Core); (2) Identify what factors affect telehealth use for cancer care and overall quality of care and to develop and test implementation strategies to mitigate differences in outcomes (Research and Methods Core); (3) Create a high functioning learning network to facilitate research on telehealth for cancer (Clinical Practice Network); (4) conduct a trial assessing the impact of a comprehensive, multilevel virtual oncology program on promoting engagement with telehealth and reducing differences in outcomes of care(Pragmatic Trial); and (5) Train the next generation of oncology researchers in virtual care.




Quality of Care in Veterans Affairs Health Care System In-Person and National TeleOncology Service-Delivered Care.
Authors: Zullig L.L. , Jeffreys A.S. , Raska W. , McWhirter G.C. , Passero V. , Friedman D.R. , Moss H. , Olsen M. , Weidenbacher H.J. , Sherman S.E. , et al. .
Source: Jco Oncology Practice, 2025-04-15 00:00:00.0; , p. OP2401040.
EPub date: 2025-04-15 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 40233294
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Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer: the THRIVE Center.
Authors: Zullig L.L. , Makarov D. , Becker D. , Dardashti N. , Guzman I. , Kelley M.J. , Melnic I. , Juarez Padilla J. , Rojas S. , Thomas J. , et al. .
Source: Journal Of The National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2024-06-26 00:00:00.0; 2024(64), p. 70-75.
PMID: 38924789
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A Framework for Integrating Telehealth Equitably across the cancer care continuum.
Authors: Rendle K.A. , Tan A.S.L. , Spring B. , Bange E.M. , Lipitz-Snyderman A. , Morris M.J. , Makarov D.V. , Daly R. , Garcia S.F. , Hitsman B. , et al. .
Source: Journal Of The National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2024-06-26 00:00:00.0; 2024(64), p. 92-99.
PMID: 38924790
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