Telehealth Research & Innovation for Veterans with Cancer Research & Methods Core
Key factors that the Telehealth Research and Innovation for Veterans with Cancer (THRIVE) investigators examine and our methods for measuring them include the following.
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
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
Area Deprivation Index (ADI) per 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
Race:
- 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
Additional variables 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 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, VISN or national level. They may be interventional or observational.
Investigator Eligibility
Project teams must include at least one investigator who is currently funded by VA’s HSR, RR&D, or 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, RR&D, or CSR&D must serve as the PI or MPI.
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 typically opens in Spring for the upcoming fiscal year.
Funded Projects
The following pilot projects have been funded by the program.
| Investigator | Project Title | Funding Year |
|---|---|---|
| Julie Gass, PhD | Optimizing and Piloting an Evidence-Based Telehealth Tobacco and Alcohol Intervention for Veterans with Cancer: Motivational Intervention Designed for Self-management and EducaTion – Cancer (MINDSET-C) | 2025 |
| Elizabeth Hulen, PhD | Patient and Provider Experiences with Telehealth-delivered Breast Cancer Care | 2025 |
| Laiba Husain, DPhil (Oxon.), MPH | AI-Powered Predictive Analytics to Optimize Tele-oncology Implementation for Rural Veterans with Cancer | 2025 |
| Manisha Bhattacharya, MD, MBA | Developing an Enhanced Clinical Data Tracker to Optimize Interorganizational Cancer Care Coordination for Rural Veterans | 2025 |
| Rendelle Bolton, PhD, MPH | Implementing Virtual Care Approaches to Facilitate Person-Centered, and Coordinated Lung Cancer Screening in Hub-and-Spoke Organizational Models | 2025 |
| Jessica Maxwell, MD, MPH | Utilizing Telehealth to Improve Time to Postoperative Radiation in Veterans with Head and Neck Cancer | 2025 |
| Scott Sherman, MD, MPH | Cancer Care Workforce Qualitative Study: Investigating Oncologists' Acceptance and Hesitancy Towards Virtual Care Roles in VA Healthcare | 2025 |
| 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.