Mentor Name: Lisa Schwartz

In March 2021, a technical brief was published, Disparities and Barriers to Pediatric Cancer Care, that was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The report described research on disparities in survivorship care, healthcare utilization, and health outcomes, and articulated future research directions. In conjunction with these noted disparities, we have pursued a program of research to address such disparities and improve healthcare engagement and management for survivors of childhood cancer. We are currently testing a trial of a complex multi-modal intervention to re-engage childhood cancer survivors lost to follow-up. This study will serve as the basis for the training opportunity and research project of Charlize Amper, applicant for ALSF POST funding for summer of 2026. Specifically, Charlize will: 1) conduct a relevant literature search on disparities in survivorship care and strategies to engage hard-to-reach adolescent populations, as well as expand her learning on implementation science, 2) screen for eligible participants in the electronic health record, 3) call and message potentially eligible participants to enroll them, 4) conduct follow-up outreach to those needing reminders to complete surveys, 5) assist with data quality checking in the REDCap electronic data capture database, 6) for those enrolled, conduct electronic health record reviews to gather relevant patient demographic and disease and treatment history, and information on current engagement in care (e.g., follow-up visits), 7) assist with analyzing data, and 8) summarize results for presentation. Charlize will specifically analyze data related to characteristics among the 1000+ potentially eligible participants (e.g., survivors age 15+ who have not returned for follow-up care in 15+ months). She will also compare those who were reachable versus those who were not, and those who agreed to consent to the study versus those who did not. Additionally, she will describe those who made an appointment for survivorship care after the first phase of the intervention, which entails low touch nudges, and related acceptability data of Phase 1 of the intervention. This data will help us understand disparities that remain regarding who is able to be reached and motivated to enroll in the study, and who is able to make an appointment for survivorship care early on in the intervention. This knowledge is important for improving outreach efforts for the study and considering future implementation of the intervention. Together, these research activities will expose Charlize to a variety of clinical research methods.