VIDEO: How providers can ‘do better’ to improve access to care for breast cancer patients

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So unfortunately, disparities in breast cancer care exist for multiple reasons. Some of it has to do with differences in biology of cancers across race and ethnicity, but some of it also has to do with social determinants of health and levels of education and access to care. And so, I think there's a lot that we need to do better to improve access and improve outcomes for patients who come from different backgrounds. One area that I think we could do better with is being able to go into the community to make sure that patients have access in areas where they may not normally. So for example, screening, it's very critical that all patients have access to mammographic screening, but if their nearest mammography center is hours away, that's obviously making it very challenging for some patients to get access to. So can we take mammography vans into communities where they don't have good screening access and make sure that patients get the screening that they need? So I think we can do better in those kinds of areas where we move care to the community, where we integrate telehealth, for example, into the community so that patients aren't taking as much time away from work, need for childcare, cost for parking, all these things that come with a visit to your doctor aren't so easy. It turns out a lot of people won't get paid for the day of work that they're missing when they go to their doctor and that obviously is a reason many patients aren't going to doctor's appointments when they need to. So we need to remove those barriers to make sure patients have equal access to care. Another strategy that I think we've found to be quite successful is introduction of patient navigation. So to make sure that patients who come from backgrounds where it may be particularly challenging for them to get care, have access to a navigator that can guide them through the healthcare process. I think even for a doctor, navigating the healthcare process isn't so easy and so certainly we really need to make it easier so that there's an easy point of contact, an easy way to get an appointment that works with your schedule and then to make sure that if there are follow-up questions, that you have access to getting those easily addressed. And so again, I think there are lots of strategies we need to adopt more, certainly funding is one of them, not only to pay for navigators, but to help patients who can't afford parking, can't afford a meal that they need for the day, the childcare that they need for being able to go to the doctor, their missed day at work. All of those kinds of things really need to be accessible to patients, particularly those in need. So lots of work is being done in these areas and hopefully we can do better.