NIH R01: Addressing Barriers to Healthcare Transitions for Survivors of Childhood and Adolescent Cancers

Funding Opportunity Number: RFA-CA-24-027

Deadline: October 11, 2024

Purpose

Through this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) as a request for applications (RFA), the NCI intends to support multi-level intervention studies that address individual and system level barriers to transitions from pediatric to adult care for survivors of childhood and adolescent cancers. The goal of this opportunity is to support the development and testing of interventions and strategies that promote high-quality transitional care and continued engagement of survivors of childhood and adolescent cancers to ensure these survivors receive appropriate surveillance and care into adulthood. This NOFO is associated with the STAR Reauthorization Act of 2023, which is intended to maximize and accelerate discovery, development, and availability of promising models of care for pediatric cancer survivors, including transition to adult care and care coordination. Overall, it is anticipated that this research will provide critical evidence for establishing best practices and standards of care that can be widely disseminated and adopted.

Key Definitions

  • Care Transition: an active, planned, coordinated, comprehensive, multidisciplinary process enabling childhood and adolescent cancer survivors to transfer from child-centered to adult-oriented healthcare systems effectively and harmoniously.
  • Cancer survivorship care: risk-informed healthcare that includes surveillance for recurrence and new malignancies, screening and management of physical and psychological side effects, preventive care, management of multiple chronic conditions, improving mental and emotional well-being, promotion of positive health behaviors, and managing late- and long-term conditions resulting from cancer and its treatment.
  • Pediatric/Adolescent Cancer Survivor: any individual diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 0 – 19 years of age from the time of diagnosis through the balance of life.
  • Healthcare Provider: any person or organization who furnishes, bills, or is paid for healthcare in the normal course of business. Examples include physicians, nurses, advanced practitioners, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists.
  • Transition Readiness: indications that a patient and those in their support system (e.g., parents and providers) can successfully transition from child-centered to adult-oriented healthcare.

For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.