Association of Community Cancer Centers names new president
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Randall A. Oyer, MD, has been named president of Association of Community Cancer Centers for 2020-2021.
Oyer is a medical oncologist at Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute at Penn Medicine Lancaster General in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He serves as medical director of the cancer institute, medical director of oncology, chairman of the cancer committee, chair of the oncology physicians advisory council and medical director of the cancer risk evaluation program.
He also is a member of the cancer service line executive committee and cancer service line quality committee at University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center.
Each association president selects a theme for their term. The theme of Oyer’s presidency will be, “Community oncology can close the gap in cancer research.”
Oyer joined Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) in 2006.
“I was attracted to ACCC’s mission of education and advocacy for the whole team because in cancer care, I really think that’s what it’s all about — the whole team,” Oyer said in a press release. “I needed a how-to organization when I took on a new position to develop a cancer program and to build a cancer center, and there was a lot that I had to learn and that my organization had to learn.”
Association members over the past year have reported gaps in community research.
The association’s “2019 Trending Now in Cancer Care Survey” identified three key challenges to offering clinical trials for patients: resources and training, program infrastructure and lack of patient understanding about the clinical trials process.
“We have a serious imbalance in our clinical trials work,” Oyer said. “Our patients are in the community, yet the trials are at academic medical centers. And I believe that ACCC is uniquely situated to close this gap.”
Oyer outlined several strategies to achieve this goal. They include creating a multidisciplinary task force to identify staff, program or patient education resources needed to accelerate implementation of clinical trials; uniting experts at the 2020 ACCC Institute for the Future of Oncology forum to share best practices and learn more about challenges and barriers to clinical trials adoption; and developing a series of articles, blogs and podcasts on effective practices in clinical trials accrual and management.
“We would like to improve our care and access for traditionally underserved communities,” Oyer said. “We would like to increase sensitivity, awareness and understanding of the needs specific to geriatric oncology. And we would like to bring precision medicine into the community by understanding how to use the new precision diagnostics and radiology techniques to make sure that our patients have access to these services.”