Emotional Well-Being and Economic Burden Research Network

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PROJECT SUMMARY Managing any illness means also managing its economic burden, i.e., the burden due to costs of care and productivity losses. This can financially devastate patients and their families. Not being able to pay medical or other bills, borrowing money, using up savings, even declaring bankruptcy, are just a few of the financial hardships patients experience. An emerging body of literature suggests that this economic burden may also take an emotional toll. In our own program of research, we found that cancer patients expressed worry about the cost of treatment or taking time off work when making treatment decisions, and that one in two gynecologic cancer patients starting chemotherapy already reported financial distress. To date, little attention has been paid to how emotional well-being and economic burden are related. The opportunity to fully understand the underlying mechanisms between economic burden, emotional well-being, and broader health outcomes is further hampered by the lack of dedicated researchers and lack of ‘cross-talk’ across disciplines and fields of research. Consequently, we do not know how to reduce the impact of the economic burden of disease and enhance well-being. We propose to address knowledge gaps and overcome barriers to progress in this emerging area of research by establishing the Emotional Well-Being and Economic Burden (EMOT-ECON) Research Network. This Network will bring together multidisciplinary scientists across institutions to take a transdisciplinary approach to answering the most urgent emotional well- being and economic burden questions. Novel and outstanding features of the EMOT-ECON Network include: i) leadership by a health economist and a clinical psychologist, long-term collaborators, and colleagues. They will be supported by a leadership team that includes patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, and policymakers who will bring unique knowledge and perspective to enrich Network activities; ii) pilot project program portfolio of diverse funding mechanisms, including opportunities specifically designed to recruit new investigators to the field; and iii) use of social media and an interactive website to attract researchers, facilitate the formation of new research teams, and share opportunities, resources and products. Our effort, designed to build research capacity in emotional well-being and economic burden, will have a substantial impact by generating the body of knowledge necessary to develop interventions that minimize the impact of the economic burden of disease and enhance well-being.