Description/Overview:

Most treatments shown to be efficacious in research studies remain inaccessible to many patients during routine cancer care. The Institute of Medicine describes this gap between “the health care we have and the care we could have” as a “chasm.” For patients from historically minoritized communities, this chasm is often wider, resulting in inequitable access to high-quality supportive and symptom-focused cancer care. Dissemination and implementation (D&I) research seeks to bridge this gap by identifying strategies to integrate effective, evidence-based interventions into real-world clinical settings and evaluating their impact and sustainability. D&I research offers unique frameworks, implementation strategies, study designs, and outcomes that are essential for advancing equitable access to high-quality cancer care. However, many clinicians and researchers in integrative oncology lack formal training in D&I methods. This workshop will provide an accessible introduction to D&I science, using the Implementing Massage & Acupuncture into Oncology Care (IMAGINE) project as a real-world case example. IMAGINE is a national collaboration among Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO), and 35 urban, rural, and community cancer centers and hospital systems across the United States. Collectively, IMAGINE sites serve over 10,000 patients with cancer, including individuals from racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse communities.

Learning Objectives:

After participating in this workshop, attendees will be able to:

• Explain core concepts of dissemination and implementation (D&I) science, including key frameworks, strategies, and outcomes, and describe how these methods can be applied to advance high-quality integrative oncology care across cancer treatment settings that treat diverse patient populations.
• Describe the impact of the IMAGINE implementation project on expanding equitable access to evidence-based acupuncture and oncology massage services for patients with cancer receiving care in urban, rural, and community cancer centers, including sites serving racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse populations.
• Identify implementation gaps that reduce access to and delivery of integrative oncology care, and apply implementation strategies to address barriers related to institutional context, workforce capacity, referral pathways, and patient engagement.
• Demonstrate inclusive and effective communication strategies for discussing integrative medicine with patients and medical oncology providers, through role-playing simulations that reflect real-world clinical and interdisciplinary conversations.

Target Audience:

This workshop is designed for integrative oncology clinicians and researchers across disciplines and career stages who are interested in learning about implementation science principles as a method to improve equitable access to evidence-based integrative oncology services across cancer care settings. Attendees may include acupuncture and massage therapists, clinician champions, medical oncology professionals, and researchers. No prior knowledge of implementation science is required. Clinicians will gain practical tools to implement and sustain integrative oncology services in diverse care settings, while researchers will learn strategies for rigorous evaluation of implementation outcomes, including equity-relevant measures.