The Data, Evaluation, and Coordination Center (DECC) for Connecting Underrepresented Populations to Clinical Trials (CUSP2CT)

Project Summary Despite the decline in overall mortality and incidence of cancer in the US population, disparities in cancer care still largely exist within certain groups. One key barrier causing the lack of proportional representation of these groups is the lack of dedicated efforts employing scientific rigorous approaches and implementation strategies for increasing their proportional representation in clinical trials. The Connecting Underrepresented Populations to Clinical Trials (CUSP2CT) program aims to implement and evaluate multilevel and culturally tailored outreach and education interventions that will increase the accrual of underrepresented populations in clinical trials. To support the CUSP2CT program, we are proposing to be the Data, Evaluation, and Coordination Center (DECC) to support the data and evaluation activities and coordinate a learning collaborative towards mitigating the key barriers of cancer disparity. Specifically, we will collaborate with the CUSP2CT U01 investigators and interact with involved NCI staff members and with other stakeholders, as needed, to carry out the following activities: 1) establish effective and efficient administrative processes and infrastructure through scientific leadership, organizational processes, governance structure, effective oversight and operational procedures to achieve optimal communication, collaboration, coordination, and dissemination of the CUSP2CT research, 2) facilitate and coordinate data collection and management across the CUSP2CT program to facilitate evidence generation and rapid dissemination of methods and tools, 3) organize and facilitate collaborative efforts on program evaluation, engagement, and communication, and 4) foster a learning collaborative in leading and coordinating trans-CUSP2CT research. We are uniquely positioned to be the DECC for CUSP2T leveraging strong track record in: (i) implementing health equity centers and consortia (e.g. Dr. Odedina is MPI on NCI CRCHD U54 CaRE2 Health Equity Center and contact MPI for a newly awarded Department of Defense iCCaRE for Black Men Consortium); (ii) leading statistics and data management coordinating center effort in cancer trials (e.g., Mayo is the Statistics and Data Management Center of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (Alliance) including both interventional and NCORP grants); (ii) leading standardization and interoperability for practice and research (e.g., Mayo has been contributing to the NCI Terminology Service Development Effort and part of the data harmonization efforts in the NCATS Clinical Data to Health (CD2H)). Additionally, we have strong institutional priorities aligning with CUSP2CT with existing infrastructure and resources supporting the CUSP2CT mission.