UTHSC is uniquely suited to do this work through the College of Medicine’s Office of Community Health Engagement led by Dr. Altha Stewart. “Adding this type of individualized social support to cancer patient radiation treatment regimens will significantly reduce the barriers leading to treatment disruption,” Dr. Stewart said. The Community Health Support Specialists will address modifiable barriers, including social isolation, lack of personal and/or neighborhood resources such as food and transport access, and related issues of living in low-income, minority, and underserved communities. These specialists will maintain regular contact with each patient during early survivorship to collect treatment outcomes and to maximize stability of support. The specialists will determine frequency (weekly to at least monthly) and length (at least 3 months, up to 6 months) of follow-up to match the social situation and post-treatment physical recovery of each patient.

This work will allow the team to create formal explanatory frameworks and then apply these models to community health support specialist-led intervention strategies to overcome cancer care access barriers during COVID-19 and to keep providers prepared for immediate responses to future public health emergencies. Lessons from this work will be broadly transferrable to other cancer-related and unrelated healthcare contexts across the entire state.

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