Expanding the Integrated Cancer Care Access Network to Improve Health Equity among Urban Underserved Cancer Patients
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is expanding its Integrated Cancer Care Access Network (ICCAN) to reach underserved communities in urban health care settings. Coupled with patient access facilitation, navigation and education services, ICCAN is helping reduce barriers to care and increase access to support services through its network of community and health care systems partners. The expansion aims to lessen effects of social determinants or drivers of health (SDOH) on patients while building a language infrastructure while promoting access to patient-centered cancer care, ultimately improving treatment outcomes.
Through the Alliance, MSK is addressing the needs of cancer patients in New York City with a particular focus on vulnerable populations, including:
- Low income individuals
- Immigrants and other underrepresented populations
- Patients with limited English proficiency
ICCAN is expanding to include a multilevel, community-engaged cancer outcomes equity program with two primary components – access facilitators and the ICCAN network.
Access facilitators help underserved patients overcome obstacles to care through patient-centered navigation. Leveraging the ICCAN Network, this multilingual transdisciplinary team works directly with patients to address common barriers and factors affecting access to care. These may include:
- Language barriers
- Minimal coordination across care specialties
- Social determinants or drivers of health
- Lack of comorbidity care and psychosocial support services
- Limited access to telehealth services, personalized medicine and clinical trials
- Insufficient patient-provider communication
The ICCAN Network includes more than 360 community-based organizations, including health care and support service providers offering a variety of resources and tools for cancer patients and providers. The ICCAN Network offers the following to improve health care in underserved communities:
- Resource sharing
- Education and co-learning opportunities
- Cancer equity program initiatives
- Policy dissemination
MSK is collecting data across four key levels to evaluate its access facilitators and the effectiveness of the ICCAN Network including metrics at the patient, provider, community and health care system levels.
In addition to MSK’s evaluation efforts, the NPO will plan and implement a comprehensive cross-site program evaluation using core data elements, harmonized metrics and overall collected data. This will be used to inform future efforts and measure the impact of the initiative across grantee sites while identifying and promoting best practices.
Program Director
Francesca Gany, MD, MS
Chief, Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities Service;
Director, Center for Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities;
Director, Community Based Participatory South Asian Health Initiative, MSK
ganyf@mskcc.org