A Total Worker Health® intervention to improve cancer survivors’ well-being and work outcomes by enhancing oncology care team support.
Cancer survivors, like other workers who face serious, chronic illnesses and injuries, experience higher absenteeism, presenteeism, and worse well-being when their changed physical and cognitive abilities do not align with their job duties and demands during and after treatment.
This study aims to longitudinally assess how cancer diagnosis impacts employment, financial, and well-being on employed Latino men treated in community- and academic-based oncology practice settings. Through participatory research approaches, we will engage community- and academic-based oncology care teams and occupational medicine practices to identify challenges in providing work-related support to cancer patients and refine the design of a Total Worker Health training-based intervention to improve working patients’ economic and well-being outcomes.
Cathy J. Bradley, PhD, is the Dean of the Colorado School of Public Health and the Deputy Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Dr. Bradley is a health economist and holds the Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. Prior to joining the University of Colorado, she was the founding Chair of the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
Dr. Bradley received a Bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University and a Master’s of Public Administration and PhD in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health.
Dr. Bradley’s research focuses on decisions made at the intersection of work, health insurance, and cancer, and seeks to explain how when faced with a serious and expensive path to treat illness such as cancer, many workers remain employed to keep employer-based health insurance, despite needs for treatment and convalescence. This research has extended to families and caregivers and their financial consequences. Within this realm, Dr. Bradley concentrates on policies that reduce disparate outcomes and financial burden among people who must make these stark choices. She is also an expert in Medicaid and using administrative datasets to explore research questions related to health disparities. Since 1998, she has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Institutes of Health, and has received funding from the American Cancer Society, the Commonwealth Fund, and other state and international agencies.
Dr. Bradley served on national advisory committees including the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine National Cancer Policy Forum and formerly served on the National Advisory Committee to the Agency for Healthcare Quality & Research. She currently serves on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Methods Committee. She is also an Associate Editor for Journal of the National Cancer Institute, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cancer Survivorship, and was formerly an Associate Editor of Health Economics.
Dr. Bradley has received numerous awards and honors including the Women in Science, Dentistry, and Medicine Professional Achievement Award in Leadership, the Distinguished Faculty Award at Michigan State University, and the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Bradley CJ, Brown KL, Haan M, Glasgow RE, Newman LS, Rabin B, Ritzwoller DP, Tenney L. Cancer Survivorship and Employment: Intersection of Oral Agents, Changing Workforce Dynamics, and Employers' Perspectives. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Dec 1;110(12):1292-1299. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djy172. PMID: 30346557.
Yabroff KR, Bradley C, Shih YT. Understanding Financial Hardship Among Cancer Survivors in the United States: Strategies for Prevention and Mitigation. J Clin Oncol. 2020 Feb 1;38(4):292-301. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.01564. Epub 2019 Dec 5. PMID: 31804869; PMCID: PMC6994250.
de Moor JS, Alfano CM, Kent EE, Norton WE, Coughlan D, Roberts MC, Grimes M, Bradley CJ. Recommendations for Research and Practice to Improve Work Outcomes Among Cancer Survivors. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Oct 1;110(10):1041-1047. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djy154. PMID: 30252079; PMCID: PMC6454422.