The President's Cancer Panel, an independent group tasked with monitoring the National Cancer Plan, has released a new report highlighting ways to achieve cancer care equity through technology.
The panel's report, "Enhancing Patient Navigation with Technology to Improve Equity in Cancer Care," was published Nov. 21 alongside a letter to the president outlining their findings.
Here are five things to know from the report:
- The four priorities outlined by the panel are:
- The use of technology to support navigation
- Ensure there is equitable patient access to navigation technology
- Promote responsible development and use of navigation technology
- Maintain privacy and security of data sharing while using navigation technology
- The panel recommends engaging healthcare organizations and EHR vendors to develop and implement technology tools that facilitate efficient, patient-centered care coordination for cancer patients. The tools should allow healthcare navigators to connect patients with organizational support and resources, while also providing vetted, personalized cancer-related information.
- To ensure equitable access to these tools, the panel recommends the federal government to provide funding for broadband internet programs, and state and local governments invest in community sites that provide access to devices and private space for telehealth appointments.
- The panel recommends efforts to support responsible development, use and training of navigation technology tools, highlighting the importance of maintaining data privacy and security across different health platforms and systems.
- "Technology, when responsibly used, holds promise to extend the reach of navigation resources to empower patients and enable … care team members to … focus on the most important part of their jobs — directly caring for their patients," the panel wrote in their Nov. 21 letter to the president.