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. 2023 Oct 17;23(1):773.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04465-0.

A cancer disparities curriculum in a hematology/oncology fellowship program

Marium Husain  1 , Muhammad Salman Faisal  2 , Dionisia Quiroga  3 , Audrey M Sigmund  4 , Gregory Otterson  3 , Alison Walker  5 , Samilia Obeng-Gyasi  6 , Beth Christian  4
Affiliations

A cancer disparities curriculum in a hematology/oncology fellowship program

Marium Husain et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Curriculum; Fellowship; Health disparities; Hematology/oncology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Factors resulting in decreased representation of minorities in clinical trials
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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