A cancer disparities curriculum in a hematology/oncology fellowship program

Background After George Floyd's murder in 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called systemic racism a public health crisis. This health crisis is connected to the already-documented racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer care. Ensuring hematologists and oncologists are aware of these disparities through their medical education can help to address these disparities. Methods The authors implemented a healthcare disparities-focused curriculum in a Hematology/Oncology fellowship program during the 2020-2021 academic year at The Ohio State University Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program. They implemented a pre- and post- survey to evaluate the efficacy of the program. Results Fifteen fellows completed the pre-curriculum survey and 14 completed the post-survey. Before the curriculum, 12 fellows (80%) noted a Fair or Good understanding of healthcare disparities, and 6 (40%) had a Fair understanding of disparities in clinical trials and access to novel therapies. Fourteen fellows (93.3%) had not previously participated in a research project focused on identifying or overcoming healthcare disparities. After the curriculum, 12 (85%) fellows strongly agreed or agreed that the information presented in the curriculum was useful for training as a hematologist/oncologist. Twelve fellows (85%) noted Agree or Strongly Agree that the information presented was relevant to their practice. Eleven fellows (92%) noted that they plan to incorporate healthcare disparities into a future research or clinical project. The majority of fellows, 11 (79%) recommended that the fellowship program continue to have a formal health disparities curriculum in the future. Discussion/Conclusion There is utility in incorporating cancer disparities education into a hematology/oncology academic curriculum. We recommend further analysis of such curricula to improve fellowship education and patient outcomes with these interventions.

Automated summary

The study implemented a healthcare disparities-focused curriculum in a Hematology/Oncology fellowship program, and evaluated its effectiveness through pre- and post-surveys. The results showed that the curriculum improved fellows' understanding of healthcare disparities and increased their willingness to incorporate these disparities into future research and clinical projects. Most fellows recommended the continuation of a formal health disparities curriculum in the fellowship program.