Newsletter
Coordinated Care Tracking System (CCTS)
The Coordinated Care Tracking System (CCTS) is an application designed to ensure timely and appropriate coordination of care through identification, tracking, and navigating Veterans at-risk or affected by cancer throughout the continuum of care from screening to survivorship.
Read MoreThe Expanding Roles of PARP Inhibitors in Prostate Cancer
Nicholas G. Little, PharmD PGY-2 Oncology Pharmacy Resident Southern Arizona VA Health Care System Tucson, Arizona Introduction Over the last decade, the role of targeted therapy has played a key role in shaping clinical practice for many different malignancies. Despite being the most common cancer among men, there has been very little development of targeted…
Read MoreMeet Alec Stone, AVAHO’s Advocacy Consultant
Alec Stone, Executive Director, National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, has been a leader in national nonprofit management for more than two decades. With an expertise in biomedical research and healthcare advocacy, Mr. Stone has worked with premiere organizations such as the Oncology Nursing Society, American Cancer Society, American Medical Association, American Dental Association,…
Read MoreAVAHO Advocacy Updates
AVAHO Advocacy Updates Over the last year, AVAHO has firmly established its advocacy efforts, having formed a new advocacy committee, created a legislative action center on our website, and collaborated with several other healthcare organizations to advocate for veteran oncology care, including NOVA (Nurses Organization of Veterans Affairs), HOPA (Hematology Oncology Pharmacy Association), and ACCC…
Read MoreDeciphering the Alphabet Soup: Updates on EHR Modernization Oncology Workgroups
Hope Schenk, Pharm.D., BCOP Clinical Pharmacy Practitioner VA National TeleOncology Hub Jackie Goettl, RN, MSN, OCN Oncology Solution Expert Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM-IO) Department of Veterans Affairs In 2018, the VA began the monumental process of implementing a new electronic health record (EHR) through Cerner Corporation (purchased by Oracle in June 2022).…
Read MoreAssociation of Food Deserts and Food Swamps With Obesity-Related Cancer Mortality in the US
Malcolm Seth Bevel, PhD, MSPH, 1 Meng-Han Tsai, PhD, 1 , 2 April Parham, BS, TTS, 1 Sydney Elizabeth Andrzejak, MS, 1 Samantha Jones, PhD, 1 , 2 and Justin Xavier Moore, PhD, MPH JAMA Oncol. 2023 Jul; 9(7): 909–916. Published online 2023 May 4. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.0634 Background Cancer is the second leading cause of death overall, behind heart disease, in the US, while it is third…
Read MoreAVAHO Regional Meetings Update
In 2023, AVAHO introduced another form of in-person learning: Regional Meetings. Regional meetings were introduced to provide membership with additional opportunities to interact with fellow AVAHO members, while learning about VA oncology from a multidisciplinary perspective. Annual Membership survey results frequently request additional networking time and AVAHO listened to those needs. Many members have never…
Read MoreVA Articles of Interest (Winter 2023)
Suicide risk following a new cancer diagnosis among Veterans in Veterans Health Administration care Cancer Med. 2023 Feb; 12(3): 3520–3531. Published online 2022 Aug 27. doi: 10.1002/cam4.5146 PMID: 36029038 Kallisse R. Dent, 1 Benjamin R. Szymanski, 1 Michael J. Kelley, 2 , 3 , 4 Ira R. Katz, 5 and John F. McCarthy 1 1 Veterans Affairs (VA) Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide…
Read MoreLetter From The Editor (Winter 2023)
Greetings AVAHO members and supporters, In this edition of the AVAHO newsletter I hope that you notice the dramatic increase in educational offerings that AVAHO is bringing to it’s members! For years we have wanted to move beyond being just a “once a year annual meeting” organization and have a more year-round approach to the…
Read MoreLetter From The Editor (Summer 2023)
Greetings AVAHO Members and Supporters; I hope that this message finds you all doing well, that you have comfortably returned to the workplace and are feeling a returned sense of “normalcy” (whatever that may be in 2023!). This has been an amazing year of accomplishments for our organization, and I truly believe it is only…
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