Clinical Practice Network

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (CLINICAL PRACTICE NETWORK) The objective of the University of Pennsylvania Telehealth Research Center of Excellence in Cancer Care (Penn TRACE) Clinical Practice Network is to integrate telehealth research with clinical care across the cancer care continuum, while increasing access to care for all patients. To do this, the Clinical Practice Network will provide leadership and access to Penn Medicine’s clinical ecosystem – including patients, physicians and other clinical personnel, clinical sites, telehealth capacity, and clinical informatics and data infrastructure – to ensure successful completion of the Center’s planned pragmatic trial, pilot projects, and future research and dissemination. The Clinical Practice Network will provide the ideal environment in which to generate a robust evidence base for patient-centered, sustainable telehealth models of cancer care delivery, while also serving as a model for other systems across the country. We focus on lung cancer as an exemplary model for telehealth across the care continuum, from screening to treatment to survivorship. Penn Medicine serves patient populations across the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area, providing an ideal setting to test the effectiveness of telehealth strategies for all populations and to identify how to integrate optimally and sustain telehealth across the cancer care continuum. The Clinical Practice Network will be an integrated and interdisciplinary effort embedded within the health system at Penn Medicine, with academic and community clinical sites spanning primary care and oncology care, all served by a common lung cancer screening program. Collectively, participating clinical sites serve more than 400,000 patients per year. The Clinical Practice Network’s specific aims are to: 1) Provide access to a network of primary care, cancer screening, and oncology clinical sites serving patient populations across three states; 2) Provide access to the telehealth, clinical informatics, and data infrastructure needed to support the execution of the pragmatic trial and pilot projects across the Clinical Practice Network; and 3) Provide leadership and integration of Penn TRACE activities across all components within the Clinical Practice Network and between the Clinical Practice Network and all other components of Penn TRACE. Taken together, these aims ensure Penn TRACE researchers will have the requisite access to clinical sites and personnel, a large patient population with different backgrounds, and the telehealth, clinical informatics, and data infrastructure needed to implement and evaluate the telehealth strategies proposed in the Pragmatic Trial and pilot projects. Achieving these aims will ensure that Penn TRACE is successful in improving cancer care effectiveness and access through telehealth, communication science, and behavioral economics and disseminating evidence-based telehealth models of cancer care delivery.