# Participant Engagement Unit

> **NIH NIH U2C** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $492,617

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – PARTICIPANT ENGAGEMENT UNIT (PEU)
The PEU will be responsible for direct participant engagement to enroll patients into the Washington University
(WU) PE-CGS program. Under the direction of PIs Fields and Drake, we will leverage investigator and
institutional expertise to directly address the Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel recommendation to “establish
a network for direct patient engagement”. We will prioritize 8 areas that are directly tied to the PEU Specific
Aims: (1) identify; (2) contact; and (3) consent participants; (4) obtain tumor/normal samples and clinical/meta
data; (5) create and prospectively maintain patient, specimen, and ongoing treatment data; (6) report research
findings directly to study participants using cutting-edge, innovative, informatics-driven methodologies that
leverage unique partnerships; (7) guide patients through the “flow” of the WU-PE-CGS program, providing
oversight of program-wide integration; and (8) bi-directionally interact with the other WU-PE-CGS “Units” for
ongoing, iterative refinement of program-wide protocols based on prospective study of participants.
To achieve success in these seven areas that is in-line with the Cancer Moonshot mission, we need novel
paradigms for engagement. The WU-PE-CGS has developed several innovative approaches following our
overall mission to “develop, implement, evaluate, and modify”. First, we have partnered with three world-class
patient advocacy groups (PAGs) that have significant experience in working directly with patient-partners (PPs)
in advancing cancer care: The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation (CCF), Fight Colorectal Cancer (FCRC), and
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF). Second, we will leverage our institutional strengths to
directly address this RFA's stated knowledge gaps of genomically characterizing and engaging patients with
understudied tumor types (cholangiocarcinoma [CHOL]) and cancers that are understudied in minority
populations (colorectal cancer in African Americans under the age of 50 [CRC-AA<50] and multiple myeloma in
African Americans [MM-AA]). Third, we will employ bi-directional, real-time, informatics-driven methods to
interact with the EOU to evaluate and iteratively refine our program to ensure that the WU-PE-CGS optimally
identifies, enrolls, evaluates, and interacts with the participants.
The innovative and impactful aims of the PEU directly address the Cancer Moonshot goals of “enlisting direct
patient engagement…to facilitate participation in research and ensure patients are respected and have access
to the research enterprise” with a high priority “to reach minority and underserved populations”. Our partnerships
with PAGs and PPs, leveraging of investigator and institutional expertise, adherence to PCORI rubrics, and
ongoing methodological refinement will result in impactful research across a broad group of cancer types.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10479150
- **Project number:** 5U2CCA252981-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ryan C Fields
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $492,617
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10479150

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10479150, Participant Engagement Unit (5U2CCA252981-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10479150. Licensed CC0.

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