April 13 2020
Dear NRG Members and Stakeholders,
As we head into our fourth week since widespread precautions have been put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the social distancing requirements will most likely remain in place for weeks yet, and the impact will be with us long beyond.
The impact of the pandemic across our membership is variable, and the stories from our members highlight the truth for us all; these are short-term challenges that we will weather together in our joint mission to improve the lives of patients with cancer. Even in the midst of this storm, we remain committed.
As we learn to utilize, or increase utilization of, tools like telemedicine and remote consent, we may even find how we conduct our work changes for the long term.
We are about three months from our planned in-person NRG Oncology Semiannual Meeting in Washington, D.C. At this time, we continue planning for that meeting, but we are also contingency planning for alternatives to an in-person meeting. We will defer our planned opening of registration until early May.
We are committed to our goal of having a semiannual meeting, but also are mindful that we can not necessarily predict that the pandemic will have been shaken off sufficiently by then to allow us to meet in our usual fashion. We ask you to continue to hold the date on your calendar and commit to follow up with you in early May with more information.
We appreciate your efforts – however that looks at your site today, and once again offer our thanks for your steadfast commitment to cancer clinical research.