Kudos to Sophia Smith, associate professor, for the submission of her Robin Care, Inc., National Cancer Institute (NCI), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) subcontract application entitled "Software for Patient Navigation Through the Cancer Care Continuum." This proposal requests funds for Phase 1 for a 9-month period with a start date of August 1, 2020 and Phase 2 for a 2-year period starting May 1, 2021.

In this Phase I and II SBIR fast-track application to the NCI’s Moonshot Initiative, Robin Care, Inc. proposes to develop and assess the usability and effectiveness of Robin Care Navigate, an IT tool that will reduce the cognitive and time burden of navigation-related tasks performed by patient navigators (PNs) that thereby translates to improved quality of life among cancer patients. Robin Care, Inc. previously developed a software tool that has been purchased by multiple organizations to provide ongoing support and resources to cancer patients. Informed by the technology and user feedback from the existing software tool, Robin Care Navigate would securely integrate into patient navigator (PN) workflow and existing IT architecture at cancer care delivery sites. The long-term goal of this project is to obtain commercial commitment and bring Robin Care Navigate to market. Duke University is a subcontractor and will deliver the following products: (1) Phase I - targeted literature review, needs assessment, software design input, and a report detailing the technical specifications for systems interoperability with Epic; and, (2) Phase II - design and execution of a usability and effectiveness study of Robin Care Navigate among 150 end users (i.e., PNs and cancer patients) who will be recruited at Duke and nationally with assistance from the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW).