Telehealth Research & Innovation for Veterans with Cancer Research & Methods Core
The three primary social determinants of telehealth that the Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE) investigators examine and our methods for measuring them include the following.
Race (as proxy for experience of structural racism or racial bias):
- veteran race category defined by the National Institutes of Health’s race and ethnicity reporting criteria
- veteran race and ethnicity information will be obtained from the VA’s Corporate Data Warehouse
Poverty:
- measured using Social Deprivation Index (SDI) at the census-tract level
- SDI linked to a patient’s zip code and measured in quarterly intervals
Rurality:
- derived from patient’s zip code at the time of cancer diagnosis
- describes individual veteran’s home rural status (urban, suburban, rural) from rural urban commuting area (RUCA) codes
- CDW-derived measure
Area Deprivation Index (ADI) per the Neighborhood Atlas:
- Kind and Buckhingham’s (2018) index, capturing socioenvironmental deprivation via national rankings at the census block group level
- ADI values usually updated at 5-year intervals, most recently in 2022
- ADI linked to each patient’s address, which is updated quarterly in CDW
Additional sociodemographic variables measures we recommend examining include the following:
- age at the time of cancer diagnosis
- marital status at the time of cancer diagnosis (or within reasonable time window)
- married/living together, divorced/separated, widowed, never married, unknown/other
- distance from home address to the patient’s primary care provider or cancer care provider
- Using zip code at time of cancer diagnosis, we can import the zip code locations into Esri ArcGIS Pro software mapping platform to get closest distance to appropriate facility.
A primary goal of THRIVE’s pilot program is to generate a comparable evidence base across projects, we will continue to add to our list of recommended measures, so that project teams might examine consistent variables where appropriate.
Pilot Program
In partnership with several VA operational partners, including the Offices of Connected Care, Rural Health, Health Equity, and the National TeleOncology Program, the THRIVE team, which includes investigators from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, annually requests proposals for pilot studies that are focused on virtual care modalities for veterans with cancer, with specific interests in rural populations. Pilot studies can be at the facility, Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs), or national level. They may be interventional or observational.
Investigator Eligibility
The opportunity to submit proposals for pilot studies is open to VA investigators and clinicians. Applicants may request up to $50,000 per fiscal year. Awards will be granted for one fiscal year, with the possibility of extension for two additional years. The application window for pilot projects has closed for fiscal year 2024. Please check back for the fiscal year 2025 proposal timeline and requirements.
Project teams must include at least one investigator who is currently funded by VA Offices of Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D), Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (RR&D), or Clinical Science Research and Development (CSR&D), and has meaningful scientific involvement in the proposed project. If the project lead is a fellow or other trainee, a mentor with current funding from HSR&D, RR&D, or CSR&D must serve as the principal investigator or as a multiple principal investigator.
Funded Projects
The following pilot projects have been funded by the program.
| Investigator | Project Title | Funding Year |
|---|---|---|
| Jason Chen, MD | Optimizing Cancer Care with Telehealth Assessment for Goal-Oriented Needs (OCTAGON) | 2024 |
| Jenny Cohen, MD, MPH; Amy Kroll-Desrosiers, PhD, MS | Improving the Wellbeing of Women Veterans Through Virtual Cancer Support Groups: A Quality Improvement Pilot | 2024 |
| Julie Faieta, PhD, MOT OTR/L | Technology Evaluation to Enhance Telehealth Care for Veterans with Cancer | 2024 |
| Chenyu Lin, MD | High-Frequency Home Temperature Monitoring for the Early Detection of Febrile Neutropenia Events in Veterans Receiving Intensive Chemotherapy through National TeleOncology | 2024 |
| Howard S. Gordon MD; David J. Bentrem MD, MSCI; Israel Rubinstein, MD; Sayyed Hamidi MD, MPH, MBA | Tele Lung Cancer Screening in rural and underserved communities in VISN 12 | 2023 |
| Jill S. Roncarati ScD, MPH, PA-C | A mixed methods design to identify, specify, and operationalize an implementation facilitation strategy to increase Telehealth access via video visits and texts to Veterans experiencing homelessness | 2023 |
| Aasma Shaukat, MD | Improving adherence to colorectal cancer screening and abnormal fecal immunochemical test follow up using a novel Annie application across VISN 2 | 2023 |
Contact Us
Please contact THRIVE Center director Christa Tumminello at christa.tumminello@va.gov with any questions about this funding opportunity.
