AVAHO Advocacy
As an organization dedicated to helping veteran-centered healthcare professionals provide the best possible cancer care, AVAHO is proud to advocate on local, state, and federal legislative efforts, as well as collaborate with other organizations to improve cancer care delivery to our nation’s veterans, and to support the veteran-centered healthcare providers who are delivering that care.
Due to our diverse and multi-disciplinary membership, AVAHO is uniquely positioned to advocate on a variety of issues facing our healthcare professionals and veterans. Primary areas of focus include:
Improve veteran accesss to quality cancer care.
Our nation’s veterans deserve the highest quality care with no barriers or delays in access to treatment. AVAHO strongly supports initiatives that improve and increase access to cancer care delivery, such as:
- Expanding oncology care services across the VA/DoD network
- Eliminating race, gender, and socio-economical inequities and disparities in veteran cancer care
- Increasing cancer care navigation programs through the VA/DoD network
- Supporting initiatives for innovation in the oncology care delivery model
- Improving/upgrading infrastructure across the VA/DoD network to provide state-of-the-art cancer care
- Working collaboratively with other organizations and legislative officials to develop solutions to drug shortages that may impact cancer response rates and survival
- Partnering with community cancer centers to improve the knowledge and understanding of veteran-centered care, including veteran culture and the unique medical, social, economic, and psychological variables that can impact cancer care delivery
Support veteran-centered cancer care professionals.
AVAHO firmly believes in order to provide the best possible cancer care to our veterans, healthcare professionals should be competitively compensated and adequately supported in their various work environments, such as:
- Advocating for competitive salary and benefits for all cancer care professionals, both for the particular discipline as well as location and cost of living
- Increasing the hiring and retention of highly qualified veteran-centered cancer care professionals
- Promoting training and continuing education for all disciplines, as well as financial and institutional support for such activities
Increase cancer research and clinical trials within the VA and DoD networks.
Veterans should have robust opportunities to enroll in clinical trials within the VA and DoD healthcare systems, and the VA/DoD should be at the cutting edge of basic science and clinical research, by:
- Increasing staff for research and clinical trials, including clinical providers and research/data coordinators
- Streamlining/eliminating unnecessary barriers to research and clinical trials within the VA/DoD systems
- Promoting veteran equity and inclusion/eligibility into cancer clinical trials