Patient navigation has always been an essential intervention to improve access to care for vulnerable and underserved patient populations. New data from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center shows that navigation is also a promising approach to ensure continuity of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Controlling the expression of implicit bias in a clinical setting is a very complex balancing act. Physicians need to rely on categorizations based on age, gender, race, and ethnicity when formulating a diagnosis. Once these biases are activated, physicians need to then “individuate” the patient, developing personalized treatment recommendations and engaging in patient-centered dialogue. It is essential to design highly customized education programs and to begin training as early as possible.

Implicit bias is a manifestation of prejudice deriving from thoughts and feelings generated outside of an individual’s conscious awareness. These automatic judgments can be especially dangerous in a clinical setting, where they may be contributing to the health care disparities often experienced by vulnerable and underserved patient populations. A new publication from the University of Arizona presents a promising approach to reducing implicit bias in medical trainees. Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Investigator Dr. Jeff Stone and his colleagues developed and tested an intervention aimed at reducing the stereotyping of Hispanic patients as medically non-compliant. The term refers to a patient’s unwillingness to follow treatment recommendations or take medications as prescribed. Studies show that physician implicit bias may influence treatment recommendations: one study found that African American patients were significantly less likely to receive a recommendation for thrombolytic drugs to treat myocardial infarctions compared to their white counterparts.

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A new study from Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care program partner, the University of Arizona, dives into financial vulnerability for cancer patients with health insurance, aiming to better understand how health behaviors and psychosocial concerns may be associated with financial burden. Elizabeth Ver Hoeve, MA, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, is the lead author of the paper, “Patient-Reported Financial Toxicity, Quality of life, and Health Behaviors in Insured US Cancer Survivors,” which was recently published in the journal Supportive Care in Cancer.

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In a follow-up to their previous publication Oregon’s Familias en Acción replicates benefits for underserved cancer co-survivors through Un Abrazo Para la Familia, the team at the University of Arizona have expanded their Un Abrazo Para La Familia intervention to recruit and deliver the supportive care program to care recipients themselves.

While Abrazo was originally designed to help co-survivors cope with a loved one’s cancer diagnosis, the intervention team decided to expand the program to care recipients themselves. Thirty care recipients from existing cohorts in Tucson & Portland revealed clear benefits for cancer survivors. Data collected show that both cancer knowledge and self-efficacy (confidence in that cancer knowledge) significantly increased within the care recipient group. These results gave researchers the confidence to go forward with the recruitment of survivors as well as co-survivors.  More data on the impact of Un Abrazo Para la Familia^TM should be available soon.

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