Addressing Radiotherapy Disparities With the Suneja Lab

The Accelerators host (Dr. Anna Laucis, Matt Spraker, and Simul Parikh) the Suneja Lab,
leaders in health equity research! Radiation Oncologist Dr. Gita Suneja and PGY-5 resident Dr. Ryan Hutten to discuss their recent publication examining disparities in initiation of advanced radiotherapy between White patients and patients of minoritized groups. 

We summarize and analyze the paper, then discuss potential causes of these disparities. Of course, we must #FixPriorAuthNow - like, yesterday - but the causes spill outside the hospital. Racism and disparities in wealth, power, and resources add up in complex ways to delay care. 

We then discuss Dr. Suneja's local efforts to act on these findings, her health equity research laboratory. The group offers mentorship for a diverse group of students and cross pollination of ideas while recognizing health equity research as a valid academic pursuit. But you don't have to start a lab to act; we share ways to improve equity in your clinic as well.

Finally, Simul's Lighting Round is back! Grab your favorite mocktail, we're headed to Salt Lake City.

Other things we talked about in the show:

• Hutten et al. on worsening disparities between racial and ethnic groups in IMRT use in the US.
• The Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium (MROQC)

Podcast art generously donated by Dr. Danielle Cunningham. Intro and Outro music generously donated by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.