ASTRO is working to expand its initiatives and education about diversity, health equity and inclusion in health care. This track is dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and appears in educational sessions as well as the science program in order to provide a well-rounded Annual Meeting experience while expanding professionals' social awareness on DEI within radiation oncology. See below for the DEI sessions and Oral Abstracts available to registrants of the 2024 ASTRO Annual Meeting.
This session will be moderated by Dr. Scout who directs the National LGBT Cancer Network. Dr. Scout will provide an overview of current best practice techniques for establishing and maintaining clinic environments that are welcoming, safe and inclusive for SGM patients. After the overview, participants will be randomly assigned to small groups with one to two content experts, where they will be presented with three real-world scenarios designed around SGM patients with cancer, including the AYA population. To allow sufficient practice, each attendee will have the chance to workshop their communication and interaction skills in one of three distinct scenarios (20 minutes allowed per scenario), as well as provide constructive feedback to the other small-group members.
These scenarios are designed to enhance provider competence for navigating discussions regarding: 1) sexual health and treatment-related sexual function, 2) gender identity in adolescent and young-adult SGM patient populations, 3) cancer treatment concerns for patients on gender-affirming hormone therapy.
The session planners anticipate six small groups for an estimated 60 participants (10 per table), as small group sizes will facilitate honest, open conversations between attendees. Each table will be guided by one to two moderators with respective expertise in pelvic malignancy, AYA health, and breast cancer. All participants will have the opportunity to practice the communication strategies in a “brave” space where "mistakes" are welcomed, feedback encouraged, ideas shared all without repercussion. This will be followed by a "wrap-up" where learning objectives will be summarized for each of the scenarios and recommendations for best practices will be discussed.
Moderators:
Scout, PhD, National LGBT Cancer Network
Benjamin Schrank, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Speakers:
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, hearing loss affects one in eight Americans, including nearly half of those over age 75. Hearing loss may be congenital in nature, or may develop later in life due to aging, disease processes affecting the auditory pathway, as an iatrogenic result of ototoxic therapy, among others. Patients and providers with hearing loss or deafness comprise a heterogeneous group, consisting of several different sub-populations, facing different barriers, and having different needs, preferences, cultures and senses of identity. Despite the prevalence of hearing loss or deafness, there is a significant unmet need to improve accessibility in the health care system for both patients and health care professionals with diverse communication needs. From a patient perspective, navigating a system centered in spoken English can compromise patient safety, lead to inequitable care and decrease patient satisfaction. For physicians and other health care professionals, the lack of an inclusive and accessible environment can present barriers to clinical practice and can affect both training and professional advancement. In this session, attendees will first hear a patient perspective on the impact of addressing diverse communication needs and preferences on improving the patient experience. Participants will then learn about recent advances in hearing research and will develop an understanding of how they can better support patients, trainees and providers with diverse communication needs.
Moderators:
Lin Zhu, MD, PhD, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program
Colin Hill, MD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine
Speakers:
Palliative radiation therapy is underutilized across a variety of clinical settings, with reported disparities in palliative radiation therapy administration based on age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geography. The first speaker will describe what is known about these disparities, and frame them in the context of social determinants of health and other known disparities in palliative cancer care in general. The second speaker will describe practice models of palliative radiation therapy delivery, including use of a dedicated palliative radiation oncology service, which can help expedite patient care and address these disparities in an urban/tertiary academic center environment. The third speaker will then discuss means of improving access to palliative radiation therapy among rural patient populations. The speakers will also describe the impact of cultural competency and language barriers in communicating sensitive topics in order to “reach” diverse groups as well. Finally, the speakers will engage the audience with questions and answers. Overall, the goal of the session is to explore approaches to address these disparities in different practice settings in order to ensure access to patient-centered palliative radiation therapy among diverse populations.
Moderator:
Malcolm Mattes, MD, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Speakers:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are beginning to have a dramatic impact on the field of medicine in the domains of clinical decision making, radiation planning and interactions between patients and their medical teams. Despite the power of this technology to improve cancer care, there are growing concerns that its deployment may exacerbate disparities and that its algorithms may create or amplify biases. This session will explore the technical pathways within AI model development that can perpetuate human bias and widen disparities in the health care setting depending on its application and implementation, including how AI interacts with gender, race and other socioeconomic factors. This session will also explore how AI can be used to correct disparities in medicine, the potential role and responsibility of industry, and opportunities to leverage AI in the global context, including in low- and middle-income countries. Finally, the session will discuss potential policy solutions to ensure the fair and ethical deployment of AI technologies, and the importance of ensuring that a diverse research community is included in the discussions of ensuring algorithmic fairness.
Moderator:
Andrew Hope, MD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto
Speakers:
