Recent Alliance News
Alliance Connections is a quarterly newsletter highlighting grantee progress and promoting cross-site collaborations across the Alliance. Each edition highlights successes and provides insights into industry standards and best practices for improving patient navigation and care coordination for underserved populations and those disproportionately affected by cancer. Have a blog idea or Alliance-related news to share? Reach out to us to discuss your ideas at allianceaecc@vcu.edu.
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October 31, 2024 | Pedaling for a Purpose: Geaux Ride Partners with Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center
At first glance, a partnership between a bicycle tour company and a cancer care center might seem out-of-the-box. But for Geaux Ride founder Charles Daniel and Alliance grantee Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, the collaboration just made sense.
Previous blogs
October 14, 2024 | New Infusion Suite Brings High-Quality Cancer Care to Rural Montana
Patients in remote areas will now have access to cancer services closer to home thanks to a partnership between Barrett Hospital & HealthCare, Bozeman Health Cancer Center and Montana State University. The new infusion suite offers chemotherapy and immunotherapy, along with access to supportive services.
September 19, 2024 | Boots on the Ground: Building Sustainable Partnerships
Zip code can outweigh genetic code when it comes to overall health and life expectancy, due to disparities in social drivers of health that impede access to care. That’s where community partnerships come in. This fall’s webinar brought three diverse community partners together to barriers to care and solutions they’ve found through working with Alliance grantees.
June 28, 2024 | Hope on the Horizon: A New Era of Compassionate Cancer Care
With an estimated 2M new cancer cases in 2024, the American Cancer Society (ACS) is leaning into compassion when approaching cancer care. Chief patient officer, Arif Kamal, M.D., delivered a compelling keynote at this year’s Alliance annual meeting on the history and continued evolution of cancer care and the value of compassion throughout a patient's journey.
April 1, 2024 | Oncology Equity Alliance at Boston Medical Center: Addressing Food Insecurity through Sustainable Multi-model Engagement
Food insecurity is a pressing but long-standing issue that affects Boston’s most vulnerable residents. Compounded by rising costs of living and the aftermath of COVID-19, there has been an unprecedented demand for food assistance across the city, with the need for food and limited access to food disproportionately felt by households with children; Black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ+ individuals.
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March 1, 2024 | RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Develop Medication Adherence Program
Taking medicine as prescribed — or medication adherence — is important for patients during their cancer care journey. But what happens when you can’t afford those additional prescriptions or medical equipment? With the support of the Alliance, RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey are piloting the Medication Adherence Program to help patients adhere to medication schedules.
January 24, 2024 | Addressing Health Literacy through Technology
Taking medicine as prescribed — or medication adherence — is important for patients during their cancer care journey. But what happens when you can’t afford those additional prescriptions or medical equipment? With the support of the Alliance, RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey are piloting the Medication Adherence Program to help patients adhere to medication schedules.
December 19, 2023 | Embedding Patient Navigation in the Community to Eliminate Barriers to Cancer Care
The Case CCC team, led by Jennifer Cullen, Ph.D., M.P.H., provides insight into their patient navigation program embedded throughout the community. PARTNERS' patient navigators and care coordinators share first hand experience from working with their five community partners as they ensure patients have a roadmap and the resources needed to stay on track throughout their cancer journey.
A Virtual Conversation with Harold P. Freeman, M.D. — Ensuring Equitable Access to Care through Patient Navigation
In the final part of this series, Harold P. Freeman, M.D., shares the importance of ensuring equitable care delivery and the role of navigation in mitigating barriers to care. Freeman discusses how patient navigation fits within the health care model, and the challenges of implementation, scalability and sustainability moving forward.
December 19, 2023 | A Virtual Conversation with Harold P. Freeman, M.D. — The Disconnect between Discovery and Delivery
In part two of this series, Harold P. Freeman, M.D., discusses the disconnect between discovery and delivery of care. The conversation covers poverty as a driving factor for patients unable to receive timely diagnostic and follow-up services, and the role of the community in overcoming the discovery-delivery disconnect.
October 27, 2023 | A Virtual Conversation with Harold P. Freeman, M.D. — The Origin and Effects of Patient Navigation
Largely known as the ‘father of patient navigation,’ Harold P. Freeman, M.D., has had a longstanding career advocating for and advancing access to equitable health care. In the late 1960s, Freeman was beginning his career as a surgical oncologist at Harlem Hospital when he quickly realized that he could not just cut cancer out of Harlem – a foreign concept to a surgeon.
September 19, 2023 | Off the Frontier: Improving Access to High-quality Cancer Care Close to Home
Montana is known for its breathtaking views of mountains, wildlife and national parks. However, it is also considered the third-most frontier state in the U.S. An estimated 75% residents are living in rural or frontier-classified areas. With little to no governmental functions for populations living in such remote locations, many social drivers of health affecting patient outcomes are made worse. Discover how American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/Conquer Cancer®, The ASCO Foundation is tackling this challenge.
July 3, 2023 | Social Drivers of Health: Driving Change in Terminology
A person's health outcomes are influenced by more than just biology: the conditions in which they are born, work, live and play also play a role. Today, it is widely accepted that to achieve health equity we must address the social factors and systems that shape people’s daily lives, from safe housing and transportation to access to education and nutritious foods. In this Q & A with Alliance Director Robert A. Winn, M.D., we explore how a change in terminology can also help drive changes in health outcomes.
April 7, 2023 | The Alliance Convenes Inaugural Meeting
Meetings can be mundane and can seem impractical. However, that was not so for the Alliance during its inaugural meeting. A couple of highlights included the in-person communication and collaboration previously not available for grantees. In addition, a panel discussed the importance of community partnerships and the role of patient advocacy.