ACS Hikes Amount of Its Career Development Awards for Primary Care Physicians

The American Cancer Society, or ACS, has boosted the size of the awards it offers in a program designed to assist in developing primary care physicians who will pursue academic careers with an emphasis on cancer control.

The program, the Cancer Control Career Development Awards for Primary Care Physicians, provides three years of assistance, bestowing awards of as much as $100,000 each year.

Through the awards, the ACS seeks to support primary care physicians in mentored programs that will develop expertise in teaching and clinical care and the capacity to conduct research or implement educational innovation in cancer control.

"After several years of urging by the AAFP through our research advocacy activities, the ACS has increased the amount of the award to a level that will make it attractive to family medicine departments and researchers," said Herbert Young, M.D., director of the AAFP Scientific Activities Division. "The increase shows that ACS recognizes the value of primary care research and leadership in cancer control."

Kurt Stange, M.D., Ph.D., is one of a number of family physicians whose careers received an early boost from the cancer control award program. The editor of Annals of Family Medicine, Stange is professor of family medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics, oncology and sociology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, He also directs the Center for Research in Family Medicine and Primary Care, one of three research centers funded by the AAFP, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine.

Last year, Stange was named an ACS Clinical Research Professor, receiving a sizable five-year grant to further his research in the interface between primary care, specialty care, health care systems, and community groups and agencies.

Stange recalled how helpful the cancer control award was at the start of his research career. "I was able to hire someone to help me do the research, which was hugely helpful -- it enabled me to go from having ideas to getting something done about them," he said.

The award "can be terrific if you're interested in a research career in the broad field of cancer control," Stange said. "There are so many aspects to study, such as prevention, screening, tobacco use, diet, risk factors, and the effect of continuity of care."

Another past recipient of the cancer control award, Diane Harper, M.D., M.P.H., has become known for her groundbreaking work on the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine.

Harper is professor of community and family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., as well as professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She also is director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, where she led multiple HPV vaccine clinical trials.

Harper said the cancer control award enabled her to pursue her master's degree in public health, studying biostatistics and epidemiology. "If an FP is interested in a research career, then she or he needs to have further training in how to do research -- and this award can help," she said.

The ACS award program is open to primary care physicians with an academic rank of assistant professor who are no more than 10 years beyond residency training. The application deadline for the 2008 Cancer Control Career Development Awards for Primary Care Physicians is Oct. 15.

Each applicant must submit a proposed three-year institutional program that demonstrates progress and maturation in the candidate's career in primary care and cancer control. The applicant's institution must document existing primary care practice and cancer control programs, resources, facilities and personnel. A letter of support from an ACS office also is required. A maximum of $10,000 per year for the applicant's mentor(s) may be included in the budget.

More information on the awards and how to apply is available online.