Melissa P. Beauchemin, PhD, MSN, BSN, BA, CPNP-PC, CPON, FAAN

  • Assistant Professor of Nursing

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Overview

Melissa P. Beauchemin, PhD, RN, is an assistant professor of nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and the Scientific Lead of Cancer Care Delivery Research for the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Minority-Underserved National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) at Columbia University. She holds New York licenses as a Nurse Practitioner in Pediatrics and a Registered Professional Nurse. Dr. Beauchemin is also certified as a Pediatric Oncology Nurse and is Board Certified by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PCNB).

As a clinician scientist, Dr. Beauchemin aims to enhance delivery of high-quality cancer care for children, adolescents, and young adults while addressing inequities that impact health outcomes. Her research focuses on developing interventions that are evidence-based and implementable through acceptable and sustainable strategies as perceived by healthcare teams, patients, and families. She is also the Vice-Chair for Cancer Care Delivery Research in the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the study Co-Chair for a COG nationally accruing study to measure financial distress among caregivers of children with leukemia (NCT04928599). As a KL2 Scholar, she led a study to develop and test the feasibility of AYA-NAV, a patient-informed navigation intervention, that aims to address financial toxicity among a diverse population of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. She has subsequently led a pilot grant to adapt the KL2 intervention for caregivers of younger patients with cancer (SoCa Pilot) and an R21-funded randomized trial to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of AYA-NAV.

Dr. Beauchemin has led the implementation of systematic financial hardship and health-related social needs screening, by leveraging the electronic health record, to identify financial toxicity and social determinants of health in outpatient oncology settings. Across research projects, she partners with patients, clinicians, and community partners to ensure the goal of the research and modes of delivery align with the needs and perceptions of those involved.

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Nursing

Gender

  • Female

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • Fellowship: 2021 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Honors & Awards

Vice-Chair, Cancer Care Delivery Research Steering Committee, Children’s Oncology Group (COG)

Scientific Co-Lead of Cancer Care Delivery Research for the Columbia University Minority-Underserved NCI Community Oncology Research Program

2020: ASCO Conquer Cancer Quality Care Symposium Merit Award: Impact of a hospital specialty pharmacy in partnership with a free-standing care coordination organization on time to delivery and receipt of oral anticancer drugs

2019: Nursing Discipline Service Award, Children’s Oncology Group

2010: New York Presbyterian Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence Nominee

2008: Rudin Scholar, Columbia University School of Nursing, New York, NY

Research

My research focuses on advancing equitable cancer care delivery for adolescents and young adults (AYAs), with particular emphasis on identifying and addressing multilevel structural barriers that contribute to disparities in outcomes. Using mixed methods, implementation science, and health services research approaches, I study how care environments, financial hardship, and health-related social needs shape access to high-quality oncology care. My work integrates conceptual frameworks, landscape assessments, and intervention development to design acceptable, scalable strategies that improve person-centered care for AYAs across diverse practice settings.

Research Interests

  • Adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology
  • Cancer care delivery
  • Health Equity and Disparities
  • Implementation Science
  • Mixed methods

Grants

Selected Grants

  • 5P30 HS029763-02, Columbia-Cornell-Einstein EQUIP+ Center for Learning Health System Science.
    Enhancing Cancer Care: Expanding an Integrated Dashboard to Streamline Health-Related Social Needs Data to Identify and Support Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Cancer (INSIGHT)
    Adelman (PI), Beauchemin (Pilot PI)
    10/01/2024 – 09/30/2026

  • R21 NR021310
    Navigating Financial and Health-Related Social Needs in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors (AYA-NAV): A Digital Intervention Pilot Study
    Beauchemin (PI)
    08/05/2024-07/31/2026

  • Rally Foundation
    Unpacking Sperm Banking Insurance Coverage Among Newly Diagnosed AYA Cancer Patients
    Levine (PI); Beauchemin (Co-I)
    07/01/2024-06/30/2026

  • R34 DA056796
    Efficacy of a Pill-Dispensing System to Increase Disposals of Unused Opioids and Reduce Refill Rates After Cancer Surgery
    Hershman (PI); Role: Co-I
    04/01/2023-03/31/2026

  • U54 CA280808, Center for Social Capital (SoCa)
    Leveraging COmmunity Partnered nEeds navigation to reduce unmet health-related social needs among Caregivers for Adolescent and Younger Adult Cancer survivors (Cope-CAYAC)
    Tamimi (PI); Role: Pilot PI
    Pilot study period: 11/01/2023-10/31/2024 [NCE pending]; Parent award through 04/30/2028

Selected Publications

For a complete list of publications, please visit MyNCBI.

  1. Beauchemin MP, DeStephano D, Raghunathan R, Harden E, Accordino M, Hillyer GC, Kahn JM, May BL, Mei B, Rosenblat T, Law C, Elkin EB, Kukafka R, Wright JD, Hershman DL. Implementation of Systematic Financial Screening in an Outpatient Breast Oncology Setting. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2023 Mar;7:e2200172. doi: 10.1200/CCI.22.00172. PMID: 36944141.
  2. Beauchemin MP, Roth ME, Parsons SK. Reducing Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Outcome Disparities Through Optimized Care Delivery: A Blueprint from the Children's Oncology Group [published online ahead of print, 2023 Jan 30]. J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2023;10.1089/jayao.2022.0136. doi:10.1089/jayao.2022.0136
  3. Santesso N, Beauchemin M, Robinson PD, Walsh AM, Sugalski AJ, Lo T, Dang H, Fisher BT, Grimes AC, Wrightson AR, Yu LC, Sung L, Dupuis LL. Clinical practice guideline recommendation summaries for pediatric oncology health care professionals: A qualitative study. PLoS One. 2023;18(2):e0281890. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281890. eCollection 2023. PubMed PMID: 36809380; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9943009.
  4. Orjuela-Grimm MA, Beauchemin MP. Childhood Cancer Death When Life Transpires Where High Childhood Poverty Has Persisted for Decades. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2023 Mar 6;32(3):295-297. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-22-1279. PMID: 36872901.
  5. Robinson PD, Tomlinson D, Beauchemin M, Gibson P, Grimes A, Dadzie G, Safi M, Vettese E, Dupuis LL, Sung L. Identifying clinical practice guidelines for symptom control in pediatric oncology. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Nov;29(11):7049-7055. doi: 10.1007/s00520-021-06303-9. Epub 2021 May 26. PMID: 34041614.
  6. Lehrnbecher T, Robinson PD, Ammann RA, Fisher B, Patel P, Phillips R, Beauchemin MP, et al. Guideline for the Management of Fever and Neutropenia in Pediatric Patients With Cancer and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Recipients: 2023 Update. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Jan 23:JCO2202224. doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.02224. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36689694.
  7. Beauchemin MP, Lichtenstein MRL, Raghunathan R, et al. Impact of a Hospital-Based Specialty Pharmacy in Partnership With a Care Coordination Organization on Time to Delivery and Receipt of Oral Anticancer Drugs [published online ahead of print, 2022 Dec 6]. JCO Oncol Pract. 2022;OP2200451. doi:10.1200/OP.22.00451
  8. Beauchemin, MP, Santacroce, S.J., Bona, K. et al. Rationale and design of Children’s Oncology Group (COG) study ACCL20N1CD: financial distress during treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the United States. BMC Health Serv Res 22, 832 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08201-0
  9. Beauchemin, MP, Raghunathan, RR, Accordino, MK, Cogan, JC, Kahn, JM, Wright, JD, Hershman, DL. New persistent opioid use among adolescents and young adults with sarcoma. Cancer. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.34238
  10. Tomlinson D, Robinson PD, Gibson P, Beauchemin M, Grimes A, Dadzie G, Mairs M, Plenert E, Vettese E, Cox S, Dupuis LL, Sung L. Creating and adapting an infection management care pathway in pediatric oncology. Support Care Cancer. 2022 Jun 22. doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07216-x. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35731317.
  11. Cogan, J.C., Accordino, M.K., Beauchemin, M.P., Spivack, J.H., Ulene, S.R., Elkin, E.B., Melamed, A., Taback, B., Wright, J.D. and Hershman, D.L. (2022), Efficacy of a password-protected, pill-dispensing device with mail return capacity to enhance disposal of unused opioids after cancer surgery. Cancer, 128: 3392-3399. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.34384
  12. Joffe L, Steinberg DM, Strohli T, Beauchemin M. Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: Survivorship and Special Considerations. Pediatr Ann. 2022 Jan;51(1):e27-e33. doi: 10.3928/19382359-20211209-03. Epub 2022 Jan 1. PMID: 35020510.
  13. Roth M, Beauchemin M, Kahn JM, Bleyer A. Patterns of National Cancer Institute-Sponsored Clinical Trial Enrollment in Black Adolescents and Young Adults. Cancer Med. 2021 Nov;10(21):7620-7628. doi: 10.1002/cam4.4292. Epub 2021 Sep 30. PMID: 34592782; PMCID: PMC8559464.
  14. Sugalski, A.J., Lo, T., Beauchemin, M. et al. Facilitators and barriers to clinical practice guideline-consistent supportive care at pediatric oncology institutions: a Children’s Oncology Group study. Implement Sci Commun 2, 106 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-021-00200-2
  15. Unger, JM, Beauchemin, M, Hershman, DL. Adolescent and young adult enrollment to a National Cancer Institute–sponsored National Clinical Trials Network Research Group over 25 years. Cancer. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.33855
  16. Cogan JC, Raghunathan RR, Beauchemin MP, Accordino MK, Elkin EB, Melamed A, Wright JD, Hershman DL. New and persistent controlled substance use among patients undergoing mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2021 Sep;189(2):445-454. doi: 10.1007/s10549-021-06275-8. Epub 2021 Jun 4. PMID: 34089118.
  17. Kahn, J. M., & Beauchemin, M. (2021). Improving Health Equity and Reducing Disparities in Pediatric and Adolescent/Young Adult Oncology: In Support of Clinical Practice Guidelines. Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 19, 6, 765-769, available from: < https://doi.org/10.6004/jnccn.2021.7048>
  18. Beauchemin M, Weng C, Sung L, Pichon A, Abbott M, Hershman DL, Schnall R. Data Quality of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting Documentation. Appl Clin Inform. 2021 Mar;12(2):320-328. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1728698. Epub 2021 Apr 21. PMID: 33882585; PMCID: PMC8060070.
  19. Beauchemin M, Dorritie R, Hershman DL. Opioid use and misuse in children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer: a systematic review of the literature. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Aug;29(8):4521-4527. doi: 10.1007/s00520-020-05980-2. Epub 2021 Jan 18. PMID: 33462726; PMCID: PMC8238862.