COE

PROJECT SUMMARY: COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT (COE) Guided by its Strategic Plan, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester) ensures that all its activities are informed by its defined catchment area (CA), a four-county region (Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach) commonly known as South Florida (SoFL) that is home to more than 6.2 million people. During the current reporting period (6/1/2018- 5/31/2023), Sylvester has invested significantly in expanding the infrastructure of its Office of Outreach and Engagement (SOOE), organizing it into three distinct components—outreach, data analytics, and research support. This structure enhances SOOE’s capacity to facilitate bi-directional engagement between Center members and community stakeholders, including those who comprise the Center’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) (Aim 1). SOOE’s outreach and engagement team expanded its reach by purchasing two additional Game Changer Vehicles (GCVs), facilitating access to culturally tailored cancer education, screening, and clinical research participation opportunities beyond Miami-Dade into Broward, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties (Aim 2). To maximize these outreach efforts, the SOOE’s data analytics team has expanded the breadth of SCAN360, the Center’s data visualization platform that empirically identifies the distribution of cancer risk and outcomes throughout the CA by incorporating ten new secondary datasets on multilevel cancer risk factors (Aim 3). SOOE also established a Research Support team to match faculty and trainees with interested community partners to maximize bi-directionality across Sylvester’s research portfolio. Such efforts are enhanced by the Center’s COE Advocates (12) and Clinical Trial Champions (17), who participate in Sylvester’s four Research Programs or Site Disease Groups/Clinical Research Teams, respectively, and ensure that CA needs are understood by all members and are a focus of research from bench to bedside or community, and back (Aim 4). As a result of all such efforts, two-thirds of Sylvester’s funded research portfolio can be characterized as CA-relevant using an algorithm developed by SOOE in collaboration with the Center’s research leadership. SOOE also works closely with the Center’s Office of Education and Training and Clinical Research Services to maximize shared goals, including growing an efficient research workforce with the ability to shape statewide cancer health policy, support global oncology initiatives, and advance Sylvester’s and the NCI’s commitment to reducing the cancer burden in SoFL and beyond (Aim 5).