Bridging the Gap | Enhancing Access to Specialized Myelofibrosis Care for Rural Patients

Bridging the Gap | Enhancing Access to Specialized Myelofibrosis Care for Rural Patients

 

How can specialized myelofibrosis care be enhanced for rural patients? Expert Dr. Abdulraheem Yacoub from the University of Kansas Medical Center discusses solutions to bridge gaps in myelofibrosis care and patient advice for improving self-education and self-awareness.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…seek knowledge through the online reliable platforms of education, try to enrich their experience and their awareness of their disease and their surroundings, and also increase their awareness of specialties and expertise in the region where occasionally they might have to travel or seek attention from an MPN center of excellence in order to seek the care that they deserve and they need.”

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Related Resources:

How Can Rural Physicians Improve Myelofibrosis Identification and Referrals?

How Can Rural Physicians Improve Myelofibrosis Identification and Referrals?

Overcoming Barriers: Ensuring Equitable Access to Myelofibrosis Care and Clinical Trials

Overcoming Barriers: Ensuring Equitable Access to Myelofibrosis Care and Clinical Trials

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Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Yacoub, many patients live far from hospitals or clinics with hematology specialists leading to difficulties in accessing specialized care. What are the main barriers in addition to just the distance to accessing specialized care for myelofibrosis patients in rural areas?

Dr. Abdulraheem Yacoub:

Thank you very much, Lisa, for this. And access to healthcare is really a global concern in rural towns. And access to physicians in many subspecialties can be a challenge. It becomes an even more of a challenge in patients with rare diseases and rare cancers. So, MPN being a uniquely uncommon disease, it’s a disease that impacts younger, productive individuals who also have to have, maintain their work’s and family duties. It does compete with other priorities. So this compounds the access challenge for patients. Adding to that, is that even in patients with access to healthcare centers that are more sub-specialized, there are fewer MPN centers of excellence that can provide the service that patients deserve.

So this really compounds the challenge for patients with MPN. And this hopefully can improve with further improving access virtually to those patients or to use resources or platforms for self-education and self-advocacy that can connect patients to the experts that they require. So my [ACT]IVATION tip for patients is to seek knowledge through the online reliable platforms of education, try to enrich their experience and their awareness of their disease and their surroundings, and also increase their awareness of specialties and expertise in the region where occasionally they might have to travel or seek attention from an MPN center of excellence in order to seek the care that they deserve and they need.


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