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Day 1 of the ACCC 42nd National Oncology Conference (NOC) featured discussions of psychosocial care and a fireside chat with ACCC President, Una Hopkins, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, NE-BC, RN, FACCC.
Each year, the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) National Oncology Conference (NOC) provides a forum for cancer program administrators, operations leaders, clinicians, and other members of the multidisciplinary care team to learn, connect, and be inspired by the innovations shaping cancer care today. This year, the 42nd NOC is taking place on October 15-17 in Denver, Colorado, and boasts a lineup of exceptional content ranging from machine learning-enabled decision support to collaborative care models that bridge oncology and primary care—and everything in between.
Day 1 opened with the Psychosocial Oncology Professionals Symposium (POPs) pre-conference: a full-day symposium with cutting-edge insights, practical tools, and heartfelt connection at its core. Clinicians, navigators, and patient advocates converged to explore topics such as trauma-informed financial conversations, AI-enhanced psychosocial support, and the emotional complexities of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with nationally recognized experts in the field.
Christina Bach, MBE, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW, educational content specialist and psychosocial content editor at Oncolink, and Aimee Hoch, LSW, OSW-C, FACCC, oncology financial navigator at St. Luke's University Health Network, took the stage first to discuss the integration of the principles of motivational interviewing with trauma-informed care practices. “Early and ongoing compassionate cost-of-care conversations are essential to addressing financial toxicity,” said Hoch. “Using a trauma-informed care lens and motivational interviewing techniques helps build trust, meet patients where they are, and provide a meaningful framework for these critical discussions.”
Jennifer Bires, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, executive director of Life with Cancer and Patient Experience at Inova Schar Cancer Institute, examined the complex topic of AI’s role in psychosocial care. She highlighted both its potential to enhance early detection of psychological distress and expand access to interventions, as well as the important limitations and concerns surrounding the technology. Namely, depersonalizing care, issues of data privacy and algorithmic bias, and the irreplaceable value of human empathy.
“Embracing AI in psychosocial oncology presents a profound opportunity to enhance patient access and support, fostering a better quality of life,” said Bires. “It’s our ethical responsibility to ensure that these innovations are implemented safely, allowing all patients to benefit from compassionate care and understanding.”
Another session was dedicated to supporting a population that is too often neglected in cancer care: caregivers. Susan Hedlund, LCSW, FAOSW, director of Supportive Care Initiatives at the Biller Family Foundation, shed light on the psychosocial challenges commonly experienced by caregivers of individuals with prostate cancer, including psychological distress, physical health consequences, and spiritual and existential distress. “Family caregivers are the backbone of our health care systems—often providing complex care with little or no training, sacrificing their own financial future and personal health,” she said. “Despite their critical role, most caregivers feel unprepared.”
According to Hedlund, caregiver support is a largely unmet need in the US: “We are on the brink of a caregiver crisis, because we don’t have an infrastructure that supports caregivers in a comprehensive way.” To illustrate this, Hedlund pointed to the hundreds of randomized control trials that demonstrate the significant benefits of providing supportive care services for caregivers. Key targets of care include anxiety management, communication skills building, balancing caregiving with other responsibilities, and existential distress coping strategies. Other empirically supported approaches are psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral therapy, dyadic interventions, and meaning-centered psychotherapy—each addressing different psychosocial challenges caregivers often face throughout their loved one’s cancer treatment.
Above all, Hedlund emphasized the importance of delivering supportive care services for caregivers as early as possible and continually asking how caregivers are doing at every opportunity.
In the final session of the pre-conference, Belinda Paulicin, DSW, LCSW, OSW-C, vice president of Helpline, Education and Outreach at Cancer Support Community, discussed the emotional distress many patients experience during CAR T-cell therapy. CAR T-cell therapy often represents a patient’s last hope, and therefore initiates a journey that is both medically demanding and emotionally exhausting. Paulicin also acknowledged the stress experienced by caregivers, who are tasked with constant vigilance of the patient as they watch for symptoms of cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity.
To address these unique stressors brought on by CAR T-cell therapy, Paulicin advocated for several evidence-informed interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, meaning-centered psychotherapy, and a navigator-therapist dyad model.
The spotlight then shifted to the 2025 ACCC Innovators, as 6 outstanding programs were recognized for their pioneering work in cancer care. The awards presentation and celebration of innovation paved the way for the ACCC President’s Fireside Chat. Una Hopkins, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, NE-BC, RN, FACCC, 2025-2026 ACCC President and director of Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice at Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, led a dynamic panel discussion on her President’s Theme, Designing Oncology Care to Meet the Needs of a Growing Patient Population, joined by providers from 3 cancer programs whose innovative care models are actively addressing this challenge.
First, Karla Bowen, director of Nursing Operations at Orland Health Cancer Institute, shared her program’s AI template management tool within the electronic health record, which has improved infusion operations, increased capacity, and enhanced both patient and provider satisfaction. Previously, patient scheduling required multiple screens of information to reference patient addresses, treatment locations, and route mapping. With this innovation, the information is centralized into 1 screen, streamlining the process immensely. “It used to take about 7 days to get patients in. Now it’s within 24-48 hours,” said Bowen.
Brian Lasonde, MPAS, PA-C, advanced practice clinician manager for Medical Specialties at Sutter Health – Palo Alto Medical Foundation, has meanwhile leveraged AI at his program to develop patient education videos. “Instead of repeating the same statement over and over, we can now easily generate a script and present it as a video,” he explained. “When the patient finishes watching, we can focus on addressing their questions. It has saved us a tremendous amount of time.”
With the rise of short form video content, Lasonde acknowledged that more and more patients are turning to platforms like TikTok and YouTube for information about their health. “We need to meet patients where they are with the technology that exists,” he emphasized. “We need to beat misinformation with good information.”
Another panelist, Charles Shelton, MD, radiation oncologist and medical director at Outer Banks Health, commented that, as a provider, “I can never deliver the same information in the same way every time. So, I love the fact that [with these videos] you are giving the same information to every patient, every time.” Dr. Hopkins agreed that the implications from an equity standpoint are impressive: “Imagine when we can give the same information to every patient, every time, in every language. That is innovation.”
Finally, Dr. Shelton shared his perspective as a rural oncologist, highlighting his program’s use of virtual cancer conferences to connect with other centers. As a rural hospital in a resource-challenged region, his team recognized the need to make cancer care an essential service and piloted a virtual conference in 2014.
Initially, participants met 3 days a week to review cases collaboratively as peers before starting therapy. “We found that we weren’t doing too well in rural America. We weren’t all doing the same thing. We weren’t all following NCCN or ASCO,” Dr. Shelton explained. "We discovered that 20% of our patients needed to have their care plan changed. Some sites were as high as 48%.”
Within 5 years, that number dropped to 10%, and now, 11 years later, it’s down to just 1%. Dr. Shelton emphasized that vital information and resources reach rural areas only through intentional collaboration. “For a rural community of only 35,000, this is incredible and a model that we can magnify in other areas across the country,” he said. “Now, we meet 1 hour every day, which adds up to 350 hours a year of knowledge and collaboration from incredibly smart and experienced professionals. This has built our workforce capacity tremendously. It’s a game changer for rural America.”
Don’t miss the next blog covering the 42nd National Oncology Conference, which will feature presentations from the 6 2025 ACCC Innovators about how other cancer centers can adopt their successful models.
