As oncology care evolves, our dedicated workforce continues to face extraordinary demands. Supporting this essential workforce is crucial not only for patient outcomes but also for maintaining a resilient, sustainable health care system.
At the forefront of addressing these challenges is technology, which offers transformative solutions to enhance efficiency and reduce burden among oncology professionals. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms are now capable of assisting with treatment planning, patient monitoring, and predicting potential adverse events, enabling more proactive and personalized patient care. Telehealth continues to expand access and optimize resource utilization, allowing our workforce to manage patient care effectively, even in resource-constrained environments.
For the past 15 years, the ACCC Innovator Awards have recognized ACCC Cancer Program Members across the nation who have meaningfully advanced access, quality, and value in cancer care delivery. Innovations from this year’s recipients align seamlessly with my 2025-2026 ACCC President’s Theme, Designing Oncology Care to Meet the Needs of a Growing Patient Population.
Two of the 2025 ACCC Innovator Award winners focus on key pillars of this theme: optimized oncology service line structures and capacity-building at scale. Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Ambulatory Care Excellence Model implemented standardized roles, optimized workflows, and data-driven resource allocation that improved continuity of care and patient outcomes. Likewise, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, Princeton Cancer Center’s integration of comprehensive geriatric assessments into oncology workflows was key in the creation of a scalable geriatric oncology program that drastically increased identification of functional impairments, referrals to supportive care services, and clinical trial enrollment.
Both Highlands Oncology and Lifepoint Health highlight another pillar of my President’s Theme: technology as a workforce multiplier. Each targets a different sphere of cancer care but with the same goal of enhancing early intervention while reducing provider burden. Highlands Oncology leveraged electronic patient-reported outcomes and intelligent triage technology to develop a sustainable model for remote patient monitoring—significantly reducing emergency department visits and hospitalizations—while Lifepoint Health created a tech-enabled process to analyze health records and alert providers to high-risk abnormalities, which has vastly improved early-stage cancer diagnoses.
Our last two 2025 ACCC Innovator Award winners sought to improve palliative care and end-of-life outcomes for patients, but approached the same challenge in novel ways. WellSpan Cancer Institute leveraged machine learning-enabled decision support to develop and integrate a 12-month mortality risk model into clinical workflows, reducing in-hospital mortality and health care costs while increasing palliative care utilization. Shaw Cancer Center instead looked to community partnerships and the patient’s own home as a site of care to improve palliative care for its patients with cancer. This difference in strategies embodies the heart of innovation—each program using the resources available to them—and demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to shared challenges.
ACCC remains committed to exploring and promoting innovative solutions, recognizing that empowering our oncology workforce is key to improving care delivery and sustaining workforce satisfaction. As we move toward a future increasingly shaped by technology solutions, our collective goal remains clear: to support and elevate our oncology workforce to ensure exceptional, efficient, and compassionate care for every patient.
At the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting, the Louisiana Oncology Society received the ASCO Jeffrey C Ward Affiliate Advocacy Award for advancing critical advocacy priorities that have translated into meaningful legislative victories. The Iowa Oncology Society and Washington State Medical Oncology Society were also recognized for their advocacy efforts in 2025 at the meeting, receiving second place awards.
