Cancer Research for the Ozarks 2009-2010 Goals
It is important that we look toward the future. Goals and Opportunites for CRo in the next year are as follows:
1. Exceed our target treatment credits of 130 by 7 enrollments or 5% for this grant year.
2. Meet our target cancer control credits of 90 for this grant year.
3. Complete development of a CRO website to be a user friendly site where health care
professionals and community members have easy access to clinical trials available at
CRO.
4. Explore the feasibility of a Community IRB for CRO.
5. Enhance community awareness of CRO through presence at community events, media
coverage of successful trials and other newsworthy occurrences, continuation of monthly
email newsletter, broaden distribution of CRO video.
6. Greater participation of Principal Investigator and Administrator with CCOP and research
base committees.
7. Sponsor bi-yearly educational CRO steering committee meetings with an attendance of
at least 50 for each meeting.
8. Work towards a year of successful audits. CRO is expecting audits from six research
bases this year.
9. Explore the development of a volunteer ambassador program of past trial participants
and the role they may provide for CRO.
10. Work for improved quality assurance at CRO with:
- Timely and accurate data submission to cooperative groups
- Addressing queries as they occur. Queries are gathered monthly from our research
bases and sent to the responsible staff member to complete.
- Quarterly departmental chart audits
- Stabilization of CRO staff
- Quarterly inventory assessment of our pharmacyIt is important that we look toward the
future.
Cancer Research for the Ozarks 5-Year Goals (2008 – 2013)
In 2008 the following five-year goals were set for CRO by the CRO Executive Board and CRO staff. This longer time period will offer the opportunity to assess progress and make necessary adjustments to ensure we meet these important goals. It is interesting to review these goals and see the progress already made.
1. Enhance the health of our community and individuals with cancer by providing the latest
NCI oncology research treatment trials. National statistics show that while 20 to 35% of all
newly diagnosed cancer patients are eligible for clinical trials only 2 to 3% enroll in a trial.
Our goal is to maintain our 5.8% rate of enrollment of all newly diagnosed adult cancer
patients in our community on a clinical trial with 3.2% of those enrollments being into
cancer treatment trials.
2. Assist in reducing the incidence of cancer and finding the cure for cancer by offering NCI
cancer prevention and early detection trials in our community. Our goal is to maintain our
5.8% overall rate of enrollment with 2.6% of those enrollments being into cancer prevention
and control trials.
3. Provide education to health care professionals and the communities within our
geographical area about state-of-the-art-cancer care, including availability of NCI clinical
trials, via website development and other marketing strategies.
4. Monitor our staffing mix as needed to keep pace with changing trends and with the goal
of building a strong, efficient staff committed to research and teamwork.
5. Identify local barriers to accrual and develop plans to reduce them.
6. Interact with other CCOPs throughout the nation, specifically by attending research base
meetings and CCOP administrators meetings to enhance network of opportunities
available for CRO.
7. Explore the feasibility of establishing an oncology community IRB for CRO to enhance our
efficiency and minimize expenses.
8. Insure quality is maintained including but not limited to:
- Quarterly inventory assessment of our pharmacy services
- Timely and accurate data submission to cooperative groups
- Prompt query resolution within the month
- Quarterly in-house departmental chart audits
9. Develop a volunteer ambassador program of past trial participants to share with those
considering trial enrollments
10. Explore the feasibility for CRO to offset costs to our sponsoring institutions as we strive
to become financially independent.
11. Implement a new computer database for CRO (currently under development at
CoxHealth).