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Biomedical subjects

A D Kaluzny

Publications and source records attributed to A D Kaluzny.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Accrual to the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial by participating Community Clinical Oncology Programs: a panel data analysis.

In 1992 patient accrual to the National Cancer Institute-sponsored Breast Cancer Prevention Trial was initiated in the United States and Canada. The Trial will involve 16,000 women who are evaluated to be at high risk of developing breast cancer. Nearly 250 health care organizations are participating in the Trial, including over 40 Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) organizations, which are a component of the NCI's national clinical trials program. A previous NCI-funded evaluation conducted by the University of North Carolina showed the CCOP program to be an effective means of transferring the latest cancer technology, particularly cancer treatments, to the community setting. This paper describes a study designed to evaluate the performance of CCOP organizations in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial. Using data from the first fifteen months of the Trial, the ability of CCOPs to accrue women is assessed using panel data estimation techniques. An attempt is made to predict accrual by structural, process, and environmental characteristics of participating CCOPs. Factors predictive of accrual include month in which accrual occurred and the extent of competition for trial participants in the CCOP service area. The hypothesized model explains slightly over 19 percent of the variation in accrual performance. The analysis demonstrates the utility of a panel data approach to modeling the dynamics of CCOP participation in a chemoprevention clinical trial.

Breast Neoplasms

Evaluating productivity in clinical research programs: the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP).

This paper outlines an approach to studying productivity in clinical research programs that incorporates environmental, organizational, provider, and patient specific factors in the model of production process. We describe how this approach has been applied to the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Community Clinical Oncology Programs (CCOPs). Next, a practical evaluative model of the productive process in CCOPs is outlined and its use in evaluation and monitoring performance in CCOPs is discussed. Each level of the model is described and a number of factors potentially affecting each level are explored. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and show how management can use it to study and improve the productivity of clinical research programs.

Catchment Area, Health

Managing transitions: assuring the adoption and impact of TQM.

Assuring the full adoption and impact of total quality management (TQM) requires the understanding that TQM involves transitional challenges to managers, individuals, work groups, and the organization as a whole. This article presents some of these challenges and describes how they might be met over time to determine the ultimate success of TQM adoption in an organization.

Hospital Administration

Organizing for cancer control. The diffusion of a dynamic innovation in a community cancer network.

This paper examines the diffusion of a "dynamic" innovation--research on the prevention and control of cancer--in a community cancer network. By analyzing the social structures and communication strategies of network members, as well as the attributes of the innovation, the authors explain why this innovation is diffusing more slowly than its "formed" counterpart--research on the treatment of cancer.

Diffusion of Innovation

Strategic approaches to cancer control research in NCI-funded research bases.

Although the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has always encouraged research on cancer prevention and control issues, the clinical cooperative groups and cancer centers that serve as CCOP "research bases" were not required to conduct cancer control research until June 1987. This article draws upon case studies of six cooperative groups and two cancer centers to examine how CCOP research bases have defined cancer control research to be compatible with their missions, restructured roles and relationships to facilitate protocol development and implementation, and routine cancer control research to make prevention and control studies an accepted component of their scientific programs. Three "deliberate" or "emergent" strategies are found to be associated with the earlier resolution of problems and more rapid assimilation of cancer control studies into research base agendas. These strategies include (1) proactive planning, such as the early formation of a Cancer Control Research Committee (CCRC) and the identification of "idea champions" to promote cancer prevention and control research; (2) a staged approach to defining and introducing cancer control research; and (3) the creation of multiple "bridging" mechanisms to link cancer prevention and control studies with ongoing research activities. Research bases were most successful in building investigator commitment to cancer control research when they framed research questions within an accepted scientific paradigm, sought out and supported investigators with an interest in cancer prevention and control questions, created CCRCs with broadly representative memberships, and widely publicized ideas for prevention and control studies.

Humans

Community cancer programs as strategic alliances: challenges and guidelines for action.

This paper assesses the utility of strategic alliances as a way of expanding and improving the quality of cancer care provided in communities with limited access to major treatment centres. Alliances provide an organizational model for future community-based cancer programs by accommodating a growing need for interdependence among organizations and providers while permitting substantial independence and autonomy. Five managerial challenges to ensuring effective and efficient delivery of cancer services are identified: to secure mutually reinforcing exchanges between and within all levels of cancer care, to develop protocols and programs relevant to the unique characteristics of patients and providers, to provide treatment and cancer control services, to involve interdisciplinary teams of providers at all levels of care and to achieve quality assurance, improvement and evaluation. In addition, the paper includes a set of guidelines to facilitate the implementation of community cancer programs as strategic alliances: reaffirm the role of community oncologists, primary care physicians and nurses as partners in the program; define the structure and culture necessary for commitment rather than simply compliance; redefine the role of management; establish data-monitoring systems; modify reward systems; and set realistic time frames and expectations.

Canada

Prevention and early detection activities in primary care: new directions for implementation.

Physicians in primary care generally do not perform recommended prevention and early detection services. Many factors influence the utilization of these services; however, often not considered and/or well understood is the very process whereby these services are adopted within the primary care setting. Understanding the process, and factors affecting the process, suggest new directions for designing and implementing effective intervention strategies which increase the use of such services. New directions include the importance of identifying a discrepancy between what the practice is doing vis-à-vis what it should be doing as the first stage in the adoption process; the identification of the particular stage within the overall adoption process which best characterizes the practice and tailoring specific interventions to the requirements of that stage; emphasizing the reshaping of work actually performed within the practice beyond simply changing knowledge and attitudes of physicians and support personnel; recognition that there is a changing set of expectations to which the practice is at risk to be held accountable in any litigation; and finally that the interventions have realistic time expectations.

Health Services Administration

The role of thematic evaluation in program assessment: the case of the Community Clinical Oncology Program.

The evaluation of programs with multiple, and potentially conflicting, goals requires the integration of measures of goal achievement that often are not easily combined. One approach is the development of analytical themes which span the various goals of a particular program. The themes provide a mechanism by which the policy concerns of individuals with varying perspectives can be integrated into the evaluation framework. As well, the themes allow for flexibility in the development of new analysis as the program matures and environments change. This paper describes the application of the thematic approach to the evaluation of a complex, community-oriented cancer research program.

Clinical Trials as Topic

Total quality management in health: making it work.

Many health organizations are trying total quality management (TQM). This approach represents a total paradigm shift in health care management and presents a series of potential conflict areas in the way health organizations are managed. These areas include TQM's participatory approach versus professional and managerial authority, collective versus individual responsibility, quality assurance and standards versus continuous improvement, and flexible versus rigid objectives and plans. This article reviews the areas of conflict and suggests a number of action guidelines for the successful implementation of TQM.

Hospital Administration

Evaluating organizational design to assure technology transfer: the case of the Community Clinical Oncology Program.

Current theories of organizational performance are used to guide researchers at the Health Services Research Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Illinois Survey Research Laboratory in the evaluation of the National Cancer Institute's Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) and to derive policy options to enhance program operations. CCOP represents an innovative mechanism designed to improve the accrual of patients to phase III clinical trials, involve community-based oncologists in clinical research, and potentially to disseminate new information on the state-of-the-art cancer treatment to areas distant from cancer centers and research-oriented medical centers. Examined in this evaluation of the second phase of the CCOP are the ability of the 52 currently funded CCOPs and 17 research bases to accrue patients to cancer treatment and cancer control research protocols, their influence on the patterns of practice for cancer treatment in CCOP communities, and their influence on cancer control awareness and activity among primary care physicians. The evaluation applies selected organizational perspectives to describe the intraorganizational and interorganizational characteristics of the CCOPs, research bases, and the Institute that may affect the performance of the CCOP. This organizational approach relates the accrual and influence of the CCOP to controllable aspects of the program's design and management strategies that can be changed through policies directed by the National Cancer Institute. These policies include the criteria used to select CCOPs, the role of research bases in the development and implementation of treatment and cancer control research protocols, and the use of accrual credits.

Academies and Institutes