A cancer disparities curriculum in a hematology/oncology fellowship program

BACKGROUND: After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called systemic racism a public health crisis. This health crisis is connected to the already-documented racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer care. Ensuring hematologists and oncologists are aware of these disparities through their medical education can help to address these disparities. METHODS: The authors implemented a healthcare disparities-focused curriculum in a Hematology/Oncology fellowship program during the 2020–2021 academic year at The Ohio State University Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program. They implemented a pre- and post- survey to evaluate the efficacy of the program. RESULTS: Fifteen fellows completed the pre-curriculum survey and 14 completed the post-survey. Before the curriculum, 12 fellows (80%) noted a “Fair” or “Good” understanding of healthcare disparities, and 6 (40%) had a “Fair” understanding of disparities in clinical trials and access to novel therapies. Fourteen fellows (93.3%) had not previously participated in a research project focused on identifying or overcoming healthcare disparities. After the curriculum, 12 (85%) fellows strongly agreed or agreed that the information presented in the curriculum was useful for training as a hematologist/oncologist. Twelve fellows (85%) noted “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” that the information presented was relevant to their practice. Eleven fellows (92%) noted that they plan to incorporate healthcare disparities into a future research or clinical project. The majority of fellows, 11 (79%) recommended that the fellowship program continue to have a formal health disparities curriculum in the future. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: There is utility in incorporating cancer disparities education into a hematology/oncology academic curriculum. We recommend further analysis of such curricula to improve fellowship education and patient outcomes with these interventions.