Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Department of Radiation Oncology, MidCentral District Health Board, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
JCO Glob Oncol. 2022 May;8:e2100372. doi: 10.1200/GO.21.00372.
The incidence of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing rapidly, yet cancer research in the region continues to lag. One contributing factor is limited exposure to clinical research among trainees. We describe implementation and results of a virtual clinical research training program for Zambian clinical oncology fellows developed jointly by the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Zambia and the MD Anderson Cancer Center to address this need.
The clinical research training program consisted of 14 weekly virtual lectures, development of research questions by Zambian clinical oncology fellows, assignment of faculty and peer mentors, longitudinal mentorship of research protocols, and anonymous precourse and postcourse surveys. The paired t-test was used to analyze the change in academic self-efficacy scores.
Fourteen Zambian clinical oncology fellows participated. Senior fellows were paired with research mentors, leading to the development of eight research protocols. A total of 70 meetings and 126 hours of mentorship occurred with a median of seven meetings and 15 hours per pairing. The precourse and postcourse survey response rates were 86% and 79%, respectively. There were statistically significant increases in nine of 12 academic self-efficacy domains. The largest gains were in ability to independently perform research ( < .001) and research mentorship ( = .02) with an average increase of 1.5 points on a five-point scale in both domains.
The Cancer Diseases Hospital MD Anderson Cancer Center clinical research training program for Zambian clinical oncology fellows led to increases in multiple academic self-efficacy domains among participants, formation of longitudinal mentorship groups with both faculty and peer mentors, and development of Zambian-led research protocols, demonstrating the feasibility of implementing a virtual model. This may be especially relevant because of shifting international collaboration paradigms after the COVID-19 pandemic.
撒哈拉以南非洲的癌症发病率正在迅速上升，但该地区的癌症研究仍在滞后。一个促成因素是受训者对临床研究的接触有限。我们描述了由赞比亚癌症疾病医院和安德森癌症中心联合为赞比亚临床肿瘤学研究员开发的虚拟临床研究培训计划的实施情况和结果，以满足这一需求。
临床研究培训计划包括 14 次每周虚拟讲座、由赞比亚临床肿瘤学研究员提出研究问题、为研究员和同行导师分配任务、对研究方案进行纵向指导以及匿名课前和课后调查。采用配对 t 检验分析学术自我效能感评分的变化。
14 名赞比亚临床肿瘤学研究员参加了该培训计划。高级研究员与研究导师配对，从而制定了八项研究方案。共进行了 70 次会议和 126 小时的指导，中位数为每次会议 7 次，每次配对 15 小时。课前和课后调查的回复率分别为 86%和 79%。在 12 个学术自我效能感领域中有 9 个领域有统计学意义上的显著提高。最大的提高是独立进行研究的能力（<0.001）和研究指导（=0.02），在这两个领域的五分制中，平均提高了 1.5 分。
赞比亚临床肿瘤学研究员的癌症疾病医院安德森癌症中心临床研究培训计划导致参与者在多个学术自我效能领域有所提高，形成了由教师和同行导师组成的纵向指导小组，并制定了由赞比亚主导的研究方案，证明了实施虚拟模式的可行性。由于 COVID-19 大流行后国际合作模式的转变，这可能尤其相关。
