Cancer Care Delivery Research

If you have cancer, you want the best and latest treatment. But is that treatment being offered to you in the best way? Cancer Care Delivery Research, or CCDR, helps answer that question. It takes a closer look at how social factors, individual behaviors, organizational structures, health technologies, health care providers, financing, and how these factors make an impact on:

• How available is my cancer care?
• What is the quality of my treatment?
• How much does my treatment cost?
• What are the overall outcomes of cancer care?

The Georgia Cancer Center is the lead site for this important research on behalf of Georgia CaRES and is coordinating these studies throughout its partner sites. Patients here in Georgia have the unique opportunity to be a part of nationwide studies and help improve how their own and others’ cancer treatment is delivered, including aspects that are sometimes overlooked.

The ultimate goal of CCDR is to ensure that each cancer patient has the best outcome, whatever the diagnosis, and that patients are empowered to make an informed decision about their own health care.

CCDR is particularly important for minority and underserved patients, who often experience financial or other roadblocks when receiving care. This research offers an opportunity for cancer treatment centers nationally and around the world to better understand the needs of minority and underserved patients when it comes to cancer treatment and care delivery.

For more about the National Cancer Institute’s CCDR program

Principal Investigator

Martha S. Tingen, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dr. Martha Tingen is a bio-behavioral nurse researcher whose focus is on primary and secondary prevention. As a young nurse, she provided care to critically ill patients who often suffered from illnesses and disease that were largely contributable to poor behavioral health choices at an early age. Her efforts are largely on populations, are community focused and address health disparities, particularly among African-American families. Her research focuses on substance abuse, including tobacco, opioids and prescription drug abuse. Cancer prevention and early detection are a large part of her research. Dr. Tingen is professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences, Georgia Prevention Institute and Medical College of Georgia. She is also the director of Tobacco Control at the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University and the research director for the Children’s Research Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.

She was appointed to and serves as a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Minority/Underserved (M/U) Cancer Care Delivery Research (CCDR) Coordinating Committee.