Name
Poster 04 - The Fragmented Care Landscape: Leveraging Behavioral Engineering to Overcome Systemic Voids and Protect Patient Resilience in Geographically Distanced Cancer Care
Date & Time
Friday, October 9, 2026, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Location Name
Grand Foyer (4th Floor)
Description

Nearly 38% of the United States population resides 50 or more miles away from a primary, comprehensive cancer center, creating a fragmented care landscape that imposes an overwhelming response effort on the patient (Shriver et al., 2025). Navigating uncoordinated, colocated local providers introduces chaotic environmental contingencies that actively deplete behavioral momentum, manifesting as severe psychological trauma and "administrative toxicity" (Manz et al., 2026). When distant patients experience acute symptoms, centralized NCI nurse triage lines frequently defer care to local primary care providers, urgent cares, or emergency rooms, citing that the issue is "not directly cancer-related," a practice that heavily drives care fragmentation and administrative toxicity for the individual (Lash et al., 2017; Lash et al., 2022). This systemic fragmentation disrupts the patient's coping repertoire, driving acute distress and escalating the risk of treatment non-adherence (Chino et al., 2026). To resolve this systemic void, this poster details an integrated subspecialty model where a Behavioral Health Consultant utilizes functional behavior protocols, single-target shaping, and precision reinforcement to reduce response effort, rebuild behavioral momentum, and protect patient resilience across the miles.

Tags
Behavioral Medicine Topics such as insomnia or medication adherence, Complex Patient Care, Patient-centered care or Patient perspectives, Telehealth
Session Type
Poster
Name three triage boundary-shifting behaviors that disrupt care continuity for regional oncology patients navigating a 50+ mile geographic gap from their primary cancer center.
Identify an FET method to quantify the administrative response effort imposed on a patient during uncoordinated care transitions.
Select either a rule-governed "if-then" algorithm or a micro-step shaping protocol to mitigate patient avoidance and clinical non-adherence.

American Association for Cancer Research. (2026). AACR cancer disparities progress report 2026: Achieving the promise of cancer science for all. https://www.aacr.org/progress-reports/cancer-disparities-progress-report/

Shriver, S. P., & American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. (2025). Travel distance remains a major barrier for patients accessing National Cancer Institute-funded research sites. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 9(1), e142. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2025.x (Advance online publication)

Wasp, G. T., & President’s Cancer Panel. (2026). Inefficient networks and administrative friction as drivers of subspecialty care delays in rural oncology. The ASCO Post, 17(1), 14–18.