Champion's Prize Helps Launch STEPS Transition Program at Phoenix Children's Hospital
On behalf of the Stewart Survivorship Initiative, Children’s Cancer Cause is excited to share this second update (here’s the first) on how funding from the 2022 Survivorship Champion’s Prize is being used to advance survivorship care. Each award-winning program is asked to share how the awards are making a difference in their survivorship services, provide specific examples of how services have been enhanced, and how the Prize will continue to contribute to their respective programs moving forward.
We’ll highlight the progress of each 2022 Prize recipient during June, which is National Cancer Survivor Month.
An Update from the Survivorship Program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital
The Survivorship Program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital received the top award in 2022, the Survivorship Champion’s Prize, in recognition of their patient-centric research and multidisciplinary care model.
Dr. Alexandra Walsh, the Program’s Medical Director, recently shared that the Champion’s Prize continues to allow them to raise awareness about their program and enhance services for cancer survivors throughout Arizona and beyond. This spring, Phoenix Children’s Hospital launched their transition program, STEPS: Successful Transition of Every Patient. With the creation of a business plan, they developed marketing materials to advertise the new transition program.
With the Prize resources, the Survivorship Program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital reached out to other cancer centers, academic medical centers, and healthcare facilities to identify the best transition partners in their community, and they now have partnerships in place with community organizations for this purpose. They are also in the process of hiring a Nurse Practitioner specifically dedicated to the STEPS program. In addition, they have been able to purchase educational materials and prizes for survivors as they meet milestones within the program, such as five and ten years post-therapy and making the transition to adult care.
Dr. Walsh noted, “We feel that the prize and funding received has allowed us to continue to expand and strengthen our mission to care for all childhood cancer survivors within the state of Arizona.”