Member May 2026: Growing the Evidence Together: Successes, Pitfalls, and Practical Lessons-Session Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The session opened with housekeeping from AAPM&R, including conduct expectations, recording notice, and instructions for asking questions. Dr. Diana Molinares and Dr. Brian Fricke then introduced the Cancer Rehab Group’s Member May research session, whose goal was to share current cancer rehabilitation research efforts, discuss challenges, and encourage collaboration.<br /><br />A major highlight was Dr. Adrian Christian’s summary of a cancer rehab research survey. Key findings included strong interest in multi-institutional collaboration, but major barriers such as lack of time, funding, administrative support, and research training. Common topics included prehabilitation, lymphedema, neuropathy, aromatase inhibitor arthralgias, exercise, and patient-reported outcomes. Proposed next steps included developing a practical research course, creating a mentorship network, and building a longitudinal cancer rehab research training program.<br /><br />Several presenters shared project experiences. A multicenter medication-prescribing study in cancer rehab showed common use of opioids, membrane stabilizers, topical agents, antidepressants, and muscle relaxants, while highlighting data-cleaning and pseudonymization challenges. Trainees then discussed retrospective studies in prehabilitation, brain tumors, and vertebral augmentation, emphasizing pitfalls like missing data, IRB complexity, coding issues, and small sample sizes, along with lessons on early planning, mentorship, and collaboration.<br /><br />Dr. Anne Ngo Hoang discussed funding prehabilitation research in pancreatic cancer, stressing the importance of early preparation, strong grants support, multidisciplinary teamwork, looking beyond NIH for funding, and writing proposals with clear clinical impact.<br /><br />Dr. Jessica Chang described a systematic review on head and neck cancer–associated lymphedema, emphasizing the value of a skilled research librarian and platforms like Covidence. Finally, Dr. Evelyn Quinn presented a quality improvement project promoting mobility in hospitalized transplant patients through an incentive-based “Recovery in Motion” program.<br /><br />The session concluded with discussion of future research priorities and invitations to join the research subcommittee.

Keywords

cancer rehabilitation

research collaboration

multi-institutional study

prehabilitation

lymphedema

neuropathy

patient-reported outcomes

funding challenges

mentorship network

systematic review

quality improvement