SWOG and The Hope Foundation, in collaboration with Genentech, launched a multi-phased, multi-year initiative to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) among SWOG leadership, membership, and throughout its cancer clinical trials. These efforts are being led by the Vice Chair for DEI and Professional Integrity, Don S. Dizon, MD, named to this role in 2022.
Updates from the Vice chair
Detailed below is the ongoing work to embed the landscape of SWOG with DEI principles.
Updated November 2024.
RFA released for the NCTN Operations Center Competitive Renewal – Membership survey is critical!
With the release of the RFA, I want to take the opportunity to stress the importance of the membership survey. Our goal is to have the majority of SWOG’s membership participate so that we can describe who we are in a more comprehensive way than has traditionally been done, looking only at gender and institution. Our hope is to be able to describe SWOG in a more intersectional way, to illustrate our diversity in a more comprehensive manner. All members in SWOG are encouraged to complete their membership profile as soon as possible. All data will be housed in CRAB to ensure privacy is protected fully. Log in to our homepage to complete your profile. A PowerPoint to walk you through it is linked below.
[SLIDES: How to Access the SWOG Member Survey]
Updates from Chicago
An equity review of our protocol and informed consent templates has been completed. In Seattle we announced a review of the policies and procedures at SWOG from a DEI lens- important work led by Dana Sparks. This review led to several changes in policy, all of which were reviewed and accepted by the Board of Governors. Importantly, we have embedded the position of the Vice Chair of DEI and Professional Integrity in to our policies which engrains SWOG’s deep commitment to belonging and to representation. We have completed a review of our protocol and informed consent templates since then, and our suggestions have been passed on to the NCI. Notably, we let our colleagues at CTEP who expressed great interest in our work. Our summary conclusions have been passed on to the NCI for their own internal discussion.
Survey of Committee Leadership to launch. In response to request from our chairs, the DEI Leadership Council has received permission to launch a survey of committee chairs, executive officers, and other leadership to better understand how our committees operate. We hope to identify areas of harmonization and where committees might have set up differential processes. If you are in committee leadership, please look out for this!
View Dr. Dizon’s fall 2024 SWOG group meeting update [DOWNLOAD SLIDES]
CONTACT SWOG’S VICE CHAIR FOR DEII
The Take Action Symposium
Congratulations to Dr. Allison Caban-Holt and the recruitment and retention committee for putting on another fantastic Take Action Symposium. This year we covered Diversity Planning for Clinical trials, including reviewing the draft guidance from the FDA. It was a SWOG affair with Drs. McDermott, Gandara, and Hesketh all joining this year’s symposium.
Take Advantage of SWOG Resources
With the launch of the membership survey, I have come to understand that our SWOG website is likely not being used to its full potential. There are many resources there to help people understand our structure and our processes, to see data, including the launch of our accrual and DEI dashboards. If you do not have access, please contact the operations team (or send me an email). Often times it can be daunting to understand how to work with SWOG, but the information contained for our members should help significantly. I strongly encourage all of us to look through and use it more actively. It’s a great system.
With that, please do reach out to me if you have any questions or advice! DEI is not a solitary activity – we all learn from each other, and we will all grow together. – Don Dizon, MD
Minority/Underserved Recruitment Initiative: A Pilot Grant Program For Improved Outreach & Accrual
In spring 2021, we kicked off this NCORP-focused initiative with a 2-hour virtual symposium for information gathering and shared learning, serving as a springboard for research ideas to test promising accrual strategies across network sites.
This continues to be an active opportunity for anyone interested in furthering the reach of clinical trials at SWOG. The next deadline for applications is June 1.
The symposium featured 2 rounds of site presentations, each followed by a brief panel discussion. Participating sites included: (session 1) Hawaii Minority Underserved NCORP, Upstate Carolina NCORP, Columbia University MU NCORP, Montefiore Medical Center MU NCORP, and (session 2) New Mexico MU NCORP, Stroger Hospital of Cook County MU NCORP, Puerto Rico MU NCORP, Baptist Memorial Healthcare/Mid South MU NCORP.
Compiled Symposium Slide Presentations
NCORP Special Symposium: Improving Representation in Cancer Clinical Trials from The Hope Foundation on Vimeo.
Related News & Publications:
- Announcing SWOG’s Vice Chair for DEII (10/7/2022)
- A Year-1 Update from SWOG’s DEI Fellow (7/29/2022)
- A More Representative Clinical Trials Day (5/20/2022)
- A Vice Chair for DEI & Professional Integrity (11/19/2021)
- Workshop on Being More Inclusive SWOG Leaders (10/29/2021)
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: Permeating SWOG (5/28/2021)
- New Initiative Aims to Improve Representation in Cancer Clinical Trials (5/10/2021)
- Trials Don’t End Disparities for Poorest (3/17/2021)
- Second Crucial Conversations Panel Addresses DEI in Cancer Trials
(2/9/2021) - Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: Year of Action (1/29/2021)
- NCI Trials Enroll More Black Cancer Patients (6/22/2020)
- The SWOG Commitment to Racial Justice (6/19/2020)
- Caban-Holt Leads Recruitment and Retention (1/31/2020)
- SWOG Results Recast Rural-Urban Disparities (8/24/2018)
- Access to Care May Reduce Cancer Disparities (8/17/2018)
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