Understaffed and Overbooked: The Problems with Maintaining Specialty Care in Rural Areas

Dr. Chino welcomes Dr. Erika Moen and Dr. Dan Zuckerman to discuss new research highlighting how specialist scarcity is felt by oncologists practicing in rural environments. Dr. Moen is the first author on "Rural Oncologists' Perceptions of Specialty Scarcity and Repercussions for Care Delivery: A Qualitative Study," which is featured in JCO OP's January 2026 issue.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Fumiko Chino: Hello, and welcome to Put Into Practice, the podcast for the JCO Oncology Practice. I'm Dr. Fumiko Chino, an Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, with a research focus on access, affordability, and equity.

Rural oncology care has many challenges, including travel distance, limited specialty care, sparse clinical trial infrastructure, and financial barriers leading to worse outcomes and access for patients from diagnosis through survivorship care. Oncologists practicing in rural areas often have difficulties coordinating care with geographically distant providers and limited availability. This is made worse by known workforce gaps.

I'm happy to welcome two guests today to discuss new research highlighting how specialist scarcity is felt by oncologists practicing in rural environments. Dr. Erika Moen, MS, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science at Dartmouth. She is a health services researcher and leads a multidisciplinary team working to leverage network analysis to optimize cancer care delivery and patient outcomes. The long-term goal of Dr. Moen's lab is to improve equitable access to coordinated cancer care with a particular focus on rural populations. She is the first author of the manuscript, "Rural Oncologists' Perceptions of Specialty Scarcity and Repercussions for Care Delivery: A Qualitative Study," which was featured in JCO OP's first issue of 2026.

Dr. Dan Zuckerman, MD, FASCO, is the director of GI oncology and staff medical oncologist at St. Luke's Cancer Institute in Boise, Idaho. The center encompasses eight locations and is the region's largest provider of cancer care, treating a catchment area of over 20 counties. He is past president of the Idaho Society of Clinical Oncology and has been active in ASCO, including past chair of the Clinical Practice and Innovation Committee.

Our full disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode, and we've already agreed to go by our first names for the podcast today.