ASCO and Pfizer Global Medical Grants to improve Breast Cancer

This grant program was purposefully developed with the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Council of ASCO expressly for the patients of the Sub-Saharan region.

Purpose

• The goal of this program is to improve the quality of BC patient care by understanding and addressing gaps in the care that impact BC patient outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. These may include:
  • Gaps in clinical practice, such as the education or competencies of the health care professionals themselves, infrastructure to promote or allow proper management, or other factors related to the external environment or patient population.
  • Gaps impacting the patient experience and contribute to delays in care, including education, treatment delivery, and follow-up.
  • Gaps in the detection, diagnosis, and screening of breast cancer, including the application of WHO early detection models.
  • Gaps in the local literature and localized or adapted treatment guidelines.
  • Gaps in the coordination of BC patient care across the healthcare system, including primary care, appropriate referral of patients at and the utilization of patient navigation.
  • Gaps in access and utilization of supportive care and palliative care or social programs in the management of breast cancer.

Areas

Proposals in the following areas of interest are strongly encouraged, but are not limited to:

• Addressing patient access to care and diagnostic facilities, particularly in remote areas.
• Application of existing technology, methods, and best practices from other disease areas to breast cancer.
• Developing and implementing culturally appropriate patient and provider education, including addressing stigmas associated with breast cancer.
• Optimization of patient treatment and referral pathways to promote initiation, adherence, and completion of breast cancer care.
• Utilization of technology to improve access to care and communication with providers, including telehealth and mobile applications.
• Improving access to, and utilization of, psychosocial support, supportive care, and palliative care.
• Developing and training the non-oncology workforce (e.g. general practitioners, community health workers, etc) to address the needs of breast cancer patients.
• Approaches to establish and sustain multi-disciplinary teams to support breast cancer patients.

Scope

• Applicants are strongly encouraged to employ a collaborative approach to their projects. This may include:
  • Collaboration between institutions and across geographies is encouraged to foster the interactive sharing of knowledge and expertise, and to utilize the combined strengths of the investigators and their institutions.
  • Partnerships between clinically focused academic centers/departments with centers of health policy, healthcare management and health economics skills and patient advocacy groups.
  • Multi-disciplinary teams including senior investigator, early career investigators, and trainees that nurture the development of breast cancer expertise within the region.
  • Collaborations that can leverage the expertise and resources of partners inside or outside of Sub Saharan Africa to benefit patients within the region.
  • Collaborations with patient advocacy groups to ensure projects meet the needs of breast cancer patients.

Funding Information

• Collectively, up to $1,000,000 USD is available to fund Quality Improvement projects under this RFP. Individual projects requesting up to $80,000 USD over 24 months will be considered.

Eligibility Criteria

• The institution, principal investigator (PI) and focus of the submission must be based in the following geographies: Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Mali.
• While applications must be submitted from the geographies noted above, collaborations with institutions outside of the region are permitted. Please note all partners must have a relevant role and the requesting organization must have a key role in the project.
• Only organizations are eligible to receive grants, not individuals or physician-owned medical group practices.
• The applicant must be the Project Lead/Principal Investigator (PI) or an authorized designee of such individual (e.g., Project Lead/PI’s grant/research coordinator)
• The Project Lead/PI must be an employee or independent contractor of the requesting organization.

For more information, visit ASCO.