Development of a Novel Statewide Learning Collaborative to Increase Lung Cancer Guideline Adherence and Improve Cancer Care Delivery

Dr. Odell is general thoracic surgeon and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC), and the Center for HealthCare Studies (CHS) – Institute for Public Health and Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. CHS and SOQIC conduct cutting-edge research about the safety and quality of healthcare through interdisciplinary collaborations of health services and outcomes researchers in order to inform and shape healthcare policy and to improve healthcare practices and the health of the nation. Dr. Odell’s career goal is to become an independently funded investigator who combines advanced quantitative and qualitative analytics with expertise in implementation and dissemination science to facilitate effective healthcare quality improvement (QI) locally, regionally, and nationally. To fulfill this goal, he will augment his formal training in clinical investigation during this award period to gain expertise in 3 areas: (1) quantitative evaluation methodology, (2) qualitative research methods, and (3) implementation and dissemination science. He will apply the new knowledge and skills experientially to the proposed project. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States, accounting for 221,200 new cases and 158,040 deaths annually (more than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined). Despite the presence of well-developed guidelines for care, adherence to these recommendations is variable and often poor. To help hospitals achieve optimal adherence to cancer care guidelines in lung cancer, relevant quality of care metrics need to first be revised, adapted or newly developed and, then, the preliminary data regarding potential adherence to these metrics must be gathered in order to identify areas for improvement. Once such preliminary adherence data are available, assessing specific barriers to guideline-adherent care will guide the development