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LAWRENCE – University of Kansas research has led to the creation of a new startup company that will develop online curriculum for health care professionals involved in managing the care of cancer survivors.
Cancer Survivorship Training Inc. (CST) has finalized a licensing agreement with KU to commercialize research done by Dr. Jennifer Klemp, a researcher in the university’s departments of internal medicine, nursing and psychology. The startup company will provide online and mobile resources and education to health care professionals to help them better treat and advise cancer survivors.
“With the growing number of cancer survivors, there’s an urgent need for ongoing education targeting both primary care and specialty health care providers,” said Klemp, who will serve as CST’s chief executive officer. “Unfortunately, there are limited resources available that provide evidence-based continuing medical education to health care providers. CST hopes to fill that gap through online and mobile solutions.”
The United States has more than 14 million cancer survivors, and it is estimated that by the year 2020, this number will grow to 18 million. According to Klemp, most cancer patients lack guidance on the health care they require for common late- and long-term effects of cancer or its treatment. More than one-third have unmet psychosocial needs. And many cancer patients do not receive adequate health promotion, cancer screening, and coordination of care post-treatment and into long-term survivorship.
“Surviving cancer is a lifelong process that entails regular checkups, ongoing treatment, side effects of cancer and its treatment, and major lifestyle changes,” Klemp said. “Our goal is to create e-learning solutions to keep health care providers current on these issues so they can better assist patients.”
Klemp recently published research on a national needs assessment in collaboration with the National Oncology Nursing Society to evaluate the extent and type of survivorship care being delivered to patients and the educational needs for health care providers. This was the foundation for CST, which has continued to build relationships with experts and premier institutions nationwide, including the KU Cancer Center.
CST will officially launch its suite of online and mobile solutions to health care professionals in May.
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