ASCO has announced the launch of its Center for Research & Analytics (CENTRA), which aims to make an array of cancer data available to the oncology community and provide consultation and support for research and analysis. To help guide the program, ASCO has appointed Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer, PhD, to serve as ASCO’s Director of Biostatistics and Data Management Division.
Through CENTRA, requests can be made for data from ASCO sources, such as ASCO’s quality programs; its annual census of oncology practices; and ASCO scientific meeting abstracts and presentations. CENTRA will also facilitate requests for data sets that will become available from ASCO’s Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study. ASCO does not guarantee the fulfillment of requests, and all requests will be subject to the review and approval of ASCO.
[With] the research and analytics capabilities we have assembled through CENTRA...[we] can unlock new insights and fill knowledge gaps that persist in cancer care today.— Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO
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“ASCO’s growing repository of cancer-related data represents significant untapped potential to improve the delivery of high-quality cancer care,” said ASCO Chief Medical Officer Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO. “With Dr. Garrett-Mayer’s expertise and the research and analytics capabilities we have assembled through CENTRA, our professional community can unlock new insights and fill knowledge gaps that persist in cancer care today.”
Dr. Garrett-Mayer will play a critical role in shaping CENTRA and expanding ASCO’s capabilities in data analysis and research. She joins ASCO from the Medical University of South Carolina, where she served as Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Division Director in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Director of Biostatistics for Hollings Cancer Center. Dr. Garrett-Mayer received her PhD in biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University.
Since its founding, ASCO has been committed to helping advance the field of oncology and improve cancer care through the application of high-quality evidence. CENTRA will help analyze and build an evidence base that can help strengthen cancer policies, advance the practice of oncology, and improve cancer care for patients.
ASCO will update the oncology community on how to submit research requests to CENTRA in July 2017. If you have questions before then, please contact: CENTRA@asco.org. ■
© 2017. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
