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Vermont Cancer Center director details mobile lab, workforce and primary‑care supports to improve rural cancer care
Summary
Vermont Cancer Center director Dr. Hol told the Senate Health & Welfare Committee that a philanthropy-funded mobile lab, expanded fellowships and a new primary‑care support infrastructure are aimed at reducing rural cancer disparities and preparing applications for rural‑health grants.
Vermont Cancer Center director Dr. Hol told the Senate Health & Welfare Committee on March 26 that the center has launched a philanthropy-funded mobile laboratory and a set of training and care-integration initiatives designed to bring more cancer services to rural Vermont and parts of northern New York.
Dr. Hol said the mobile “biommobile” serves as both a hands-on science lab for rural high schools and an outreach vehicle at community events. "We bring the van out to rural high schools... our hope is that we motivate them to be our next generation of cancer scientists and cancer clinicians," she said. The van contains a fluorescent microscope and equipment for DNA gel demonstrations and will follow a curriculum developed with the Vermont Department of Education.
The presentation also covered clinical outreach: the van visits community events to promote lung and colorectal cancer screening and plans to roll out HPV home testing this year. Dr. Hol said the program will hire an advanced practice provider (nurse practitioner or physician assistant) to staff the van so it can prescribe nicotine‑replacement therapy, order FIT tests and coordinate follow-up with patients’ primary‑care providers.
On workforce, Dr. Hol said recruiting oncologists to rural communities is a pressing problem: the average age of rural oncologists in Vermont is about 65, she said, and the center has expanded training capacity from six to nine fellows to increase exposure to rural practice and provide a public‑health certificate. Fellows will rotate through sites including Central Vermont Medical Center and Rutland Regional Medical Center to encourage retention.
Dr. Hol described a broader effort to "reimagine" rural cancer care by building an infrastructure that supports primary‑care providers with oncology expertise (on‑call consults and training on chemotherapy side effects, screening and prevention). "We would like to set up an infrastructure to support those primary care providers... so that patients can get as much care as possible close to home," she said.
Committee members said the initiative aligns with the state chronic‑care blueprint and could fit the Rural Health Transformation grant model; Dr. Hol said she is monitoring Rural Health Transformation RFPs and plans to apply. She also said the Cancer Center will seek National Cancer Institute designation later in the year and may request a committee letter of support in September.
Next steps noted by the committee include scheduling a site visit (or arranging for the van to visit the legislature) and tracking grant RFPs and the planned NCI application. The committee offered to prepare a letter of support when requested.
