- Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) is a longstanding priority of the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) and leverages decades of commitment to address the cancer burden in our catchment area. COE's mission is to engage with the catchment area community; understand the cancer burden in the catchment area; ensure that our Research Programs work to reduce cancer burdens; and disseminate evidence-based interventions and policies in our catchment area and beyond. Leading our COE are two highly skilled and experienced population scientists: Dr. Karen Glanz, Associate Director (AD) for Community-Engaged Research, and Dr. Carmen Guerra, AD for Diversity and Outreach, who, together, bring the expertise and dedication needed to achieve the COE mission. They led the effort to comprehensively characterize our catchment area, a geographically-defined area of 12 contiguous counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, with over 7 million residents, which captures the residences of 81.4% of all ACC patients seen during the current funding period. The ACC has invested heavily to systematically understand the unique cancer burdens, including cancer incidence and mortality rates, disparities, and cancer-related risk factors across the catchment area. Key aspects of the cancer burden in the catchment area include: a high overall cancer incidence; high incidence of prostate, lung, pancreas, and liver cancers, melanoma, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; variable cancer incidence between Philadelphia County (lung, liver) and the other counties in the catchment area (breast, prostate, melanoma); differential cancer incidence and mortality between Black (lung, liver) vs. White (breast, prostate, melanoma) catchment area residents; many medically underserved residents, particularly in Philadelphia; areas with concentrated carcinogenic environmental hazards; and high rates of obesity, smoking, and alcohol use. COE leaders manage a bidirectional process of communication, working with the Community Advisory Board, ACC leadership, and Program Leaders to understand catchment area needs, in order to shape research and outreach to reduce the cancer burden. COE uses a logic model as a conceptual framework to guide its activities, objectives, and evaluation of impact. During the current funding period, COE developed new tools (the ACC Catchment Explorer and Catchment Report) and catalyzed research to ensure an emphasis on data-driven priorities. Significant impacts of COE to date include achieving high rates of minority participation in clinical trials, accelerating uptake of early cancer detection methods, promoting high rates of HPV vaccination, and increasing tobacco use treatment. The accomplishments of COE to date reflect the ACC's deep commitment to community engagement, catchment area-relevant research, and the dissemination of cancer prevention information and policies that directly affect the ACC catchment area.
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