The future of cancer prevention: Will our workforce be ready?

Shine Chang, Candice L. Collie

Research output: Contribution to journalShort surveypeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

If the shortage of medical oncologists and oncology nurses becomes realized in 2020, its burden is not likely to be distributed evenly. Large and prestigious centers that can attract the best clinicians seeking careers in academic medicine will continue to be able to provide cutting-edge care to patients. However, other sectors of society will experience the greatest effect of the workforce shortage. For example, rural communities that already struggle to recruit health care providers will face even greater challenges to compete for fewer qualified oncology specialists available in 2020. Indigent and other disadvantaged groups will face similar problems. In the future, those who serve rural communities or special populations will have greater patient loads, particularly if oncology clinical practice continues to evolve away from treatment at tertiary care centers, and those without local oncology services will have to travel farther for their care. Not only will patient loads grow, the number of cases diagnosed at later stages, and therefore harder to treat and less likely to result in cure, will also increase if cancer prevention activities do not fully saturate such locations and populations. In summary, this symposium and project focus on a vital issue that affects the continued and future success of cancer prevention and control to minimize the burden of cancer on the health of the public and the clinicians who safeguard it. To prepare, we must initiate systematic and comprehensive assessment and provide recommendations now to ensure continued growth and adequate preparation of the cancer prevention workforce. Tools are needed to track cancer prevention trainees and to assess workforce needs by topic area and discipline, geographic location, type of institution, and other relevant characteristics. Such tools will facilitate future evaluation of both the adequacy of the numbers of individuals in training and the best allocation of resources for training and education and ensure that all efforts and resources are strategically aligned for maximum positive effect for cancer prevention. These recommendations and tools would be useful to policymakers and funding agencies for planning, to professional membership societies for recruiting and providing career development to their members, to educational institutions for teaching students and shaping curricula in relevant disciplines, and to training programs, cancer centers, and other health institutions for training and hiring future professionals in cancer prevention and control. Ultimately, to minimize the cancer burden on the health of the public and the workforce shortfall predicted for oncology care in 2020, our goal is to expand effective cancer prevention activities, in part by coordinating efforts to prepare the next generation of cancer prevention practitioners, scientists, and educators who will lead this work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2348-2351
Number of pages4
JournalCancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Oncology

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