Tag Archive for: rural areas

Leveraging Telemedicine to Manage Myelofibrosis in Rural Areas | Overcoming Distance and Accessibility Challenges

How can telemedicine be leveraged to aid myelofibrosis patients in rural areas? Expert Dr. Michael Grunwald from Levine Cancer Institute discusses methods used to help manage care of rural myelofibrosis patients, frequency and duration of virtual visits, and patient advice. 

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…while there can be regulatory limitations on certain uses of telemedicine, patients should take advantage of telemedicine when it’s possible.”

Download GuideDescargar Guía

See More From [ACT]IVATED Myelofibrosis

Related Resources:

Managing Myelofibrosis for Patients Living Far From Specialists

Managing Myelofibrosis for Patients Living Far From Specialists

Harnessing Community Resources to Support Rural Myelofibrosis Patients

Harnessing Community Resources to Support Rural Myelofibrosis Patients

Engaging in Myelofibrosis Shared Decision-Making | How Patients Can Collaborate With Healthcare Providers in Treatment

Engaging in Myelofibrosis Shared Decision-Making | How Patients Can Collaborate With Healthcare Providers in Treatment

Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Grunwald, how can telemedicine be effectively utilized to manage and monitor myelofibrosis patients in rural areas considering their challenges that these patients have with distance and accessibility?

Dr. Michael Grunwald:

I found that it can be incredibly helpful. So I have some patients who are within our healthcare system who have myelofibrosis and they might get their labs checked at a center that’s 1, 2, 3 hours away from here. And I can see the labs in our electronic medical record system because those offices happen to be connected with our medical record. And those patients can see a doctor at the center over there.

And I might know the patient from having seen the patient once a year or twice a year, but they could be seen more frequently at the center, closer to their home. And I can interact with the physician there through the medical record, through the electronic medical record, and also view all test results. And in fact, I can order tests. There are also many patients who are outside of our healthcare system and live the same distances away.

They’re taking care of providers who are not part of our system. I might not always be able to see those patients’ medical records, easily an hour version of the electronic medical record, but I can call those doctors, I can receive faxed information and then we can scan it into the patient’s chart here. And I can still take care of those patients remotely and provide some check-ins from time to time that we performed via video visits.

Here in North Carolina, and it might be different from state to state, but here in North Carolina, we have a restriction where insurance will only sanction telehealth visits if those visits are within state boundaries. So it’s very hard for us, in my understanding, and things are changing over time, but in my current understanding, it’s very hard for me to take care of a patient who’s in a different state because of the rules about insurance and payment and medical liability and so forth.

However, for patients who live in North Carolina, which is a large state, it’s easy for me to provide telehealth visits as necessary and they’re very valuable. I think that for patients who live a little bit further away, I do have them come a little bit more often because I cannot do the telehealth visits for say, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.

But I might have patients have labs drawn locally on occasion and then review the labs and then call the patient, or one of my staff will call the patient to review the lab results that I’ve looked at, and we can provide some degree of advice remotely, even though it can be short of a video visit, which would be preferred. My [ACT]IVATION tip for this question is, while there can be regulatory limitations on certain uses of telemedicine, patients should take advantage of telemedicine when it’s possible.


Share Your Feedback

Helping Rural Doctors Recognize Myelofibrosis | How Patients and Providers Can Work Together

How can myelofibrosis patients and providers collaborate in helping rural doctors? Expert Dr. Michael Grunwald from Levine Cancer Institute discusses common myelofibrosis symptoms and proactive patient advice for educating themselves and their providers about symptoms and care.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…patients with newly diagnosed myelofibrosis and longstanding myelofibrosis can help educate primary care physicians about the disease. Often, primary care physicians want to be able to partner with specialists in the care of complex conditions.”

Download GuideDescargar Guía

See More From [ACT]IVATED Myelofibrosis

Related Resources:

How Does Risk Stratification Shape Myelofibrosis Treatment

How Does Risk Stratification Shape Myelofibrosis Treatment?

Novel Therapies and Clinical Trials for Myelofibrosis | Updates and Innovations

Novel Therapies and Clinical Trials for Myelofibrosis | Updates and Innovations

Barriers to Accessing Specialized Myelofibrosis Care in Rural Areas | Challenges and Solutions

Barriers to Accessing Specialized Myelofibrosis Care in Rural Areas | Challenges and Solutions

Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Grunwald, given how rare this disease is, how can primary care physicians in rural areas be better equipped to recognize and refer patients with suspected myelofibrosis? And what topics, in terms of questions, should patients be asking their primary care providers in rural areas?

Dr. Michael Grunwald:

I think the answer lies in education. It is difficult for primary care physicians to keep up with all organ systems, all diseases. I think it’s important for us as hematologists, for the hematology field, to let primary care providers know the signs of myelofibrosis and also the fact that treatment has become more nuanced and complex in recent years with multiple new therapies available. It also helps if patients educate themselves and educate their providers. So some of the signs, some of the initial signs of myelofibrosis can include splenomegaly, unexplained symptoms such as itching, night sweats, and/or bone pain, sometimes fatigue.

And if patients experience those symptoms, they can seek out primary care help to have their blood tested. Oftentimes, myelofibrosis patients will have abnormalities that are detectable on the peripheral blood with a CBC, a complete blood count with differential. Patients who know that they have myelofibrosis can help teach their primary care providers about their journey in MF care, thereby increasing knowledge and letting providers know how far myelofibrosis care has come. So I think hematologists and patients can work together to try to teach primary care providers about this disease.

My [ACT]IVATION tip for this question is patients with newly diagnosed myelofibrosis and long-standing myelofibrosis can help educate primary care physicians about the disease. Often, primary care physicians want to be able to partner with specialists in the care of complex conditions.


Share Your Feedback

Can Veterans in Rural Areas Facing Lung Cancer Access Experts Via Telemedicine?

Can Veterans in Rural Areas Facing Lung Cancer Access Experts Via Telemedicine? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Are there telemedicine options for veterans living in rural areas? Expert Dr. Michael Kelley from Duke University School of Medicine discusses the rural residence rate of veterans, consultation services, and second opinions.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“And you can actually get a second opinion where you have a video visit with the expert as well. So these things are all available. So patients can ask for these for a second opinion. And there’s somebody else in the VA who would be an expert that we would connect the patient with.”

Download Resource Guide  | Descargar guía de recursos

See More from [ACT]IVATED NSCLC Veterans

Related Resources:

Do Disparities Exist for Black and Latinx Veterans Facing Lung Cancer?

Do Disparities Exist for Black and Latinx Veterans Facing Lung Cancer?

Breaking Barriers: Enhancing Veteran Support in Lung Cancer Care

Breaking Barriers: Enhancing Veteran Support in Lung Cancer Care

Navigating Lung Cancer Clinical Trials: VA Support and Resources for Veterans

Navigating Lung Cancer Clinical Trials: VA Support and Resources for Veterans

Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

I live in a more rural area of the country, if you have a patient who lives in a more rural area or maybe goes to a smaller VA facility for healthcare and they’re diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, can they access maybe through telemedicine visits, somebody who is more specialized in that type of cancer within the VA system, or how is that handled for veterans?

Dr. Michael Kelley:

Yes. So about a third of enrolled veterans live in rural areas. So this is very common for us. That’s 33 percent and the nation is about 14 percent. So it’s about two-and-a-half times likely that a veteran will be in a rural area. So VA has very mature advanced telehealth capabilities. We have tele ICU. We have tele emergency room services. And we have teleoncology. So there’s a national teleoncology service. It basically provides an expert in your cancer type at your VA. And this is mostly serving rural veterans.

I think the last number I saw was 44 percent of the veterans that are served by the national teleoncology service are in rural areas. So I practice in South Dakota and Arkansas, and I live in North Carolina. And I do only lung cancer. So this is a service that I think my colleagues also participate in around the country. And we’re able to get the expertise to the patient rather than the patient coming to the expertise.

Lisa Hatfield::

That’s very helpful for patients. I know I have a different type of cancer, a blood cancer, but being able to access at least the expertise of a specialist makes a big difference in my care. And, of course, my local oncologists are great, but they’re willing to work with my specialists. So I appreciate that the VA has such a brilliant advanced system for that. That’s a really impressive statistic that many patients, veterans use that telehealth option.

Dr. Michael Kelley:

Yeah, so in addition to the direct care, we also provide consultation services. So you mentioned that your local provider is willing to work with an expert. So we do that as well. So we can have what are called e-consults, electronic consults, where the local oncologist who might be a generalist is able to ask a question to an expert.

And because we are such a large system, we have an expert in everything. And I literally mean everything. So we have an expert lined up to be able to respond to every question and from any disease that is in the realm of oncology or hematology.

Lisa Hatfield:

Okay. And will that typically happen during a visit, or is it up to the patient to request that e-consult if they would like one?

Dr. Michael Kelley:

So it’s typically up to the provider, if they think they need a second opinion or they need help interpreting this, interpreting an opinion. But the patient can always ask as, you know, that you can ask their provider, talk to their provider, which I understand from a patient’s perspective can be sort of a sensitive issue is, “Hey, I don’t trust you. You’re my doctor, but I don’t trust you. Can you ask someone else for an opinion?” But you can do it in a way which is very respectful, obviously, and it’s totally okay with us, that, I’m always happy to ask a colleague to look at a case if a patient asks.

And you can actually get a second opinion where you have a video visit with the expert as well. So these things are all available. So patients can ask for these for a second opinion. And there’s somebody else in the VA who would be an expert that we would connect the patient with.

Lisa Hatfield:

Thank you for reassuring patients that it’s okay to do that. I know sometimes we’re afraid of offending our providers, but as you said, it’s okay to politely say, “This is very scary for me. I would like to know if there’s any way to do an e-consult with another physician.  So yeah, thank you for reassuring patients that that’s okay to do that.

Dr. Michael Kelley:

Yeah. There should be nothing that any patient ever asks or brings up with us that is offensive to us. Your concern is our concern. So don’t be afraid to ask for it. My biggest concern is that you won’t let me know when you have a concern.


Share Your Feedback

Create your own user feedback survey

Improving Biomarker Testing Access for Rural Lung Cancer Patients

Improving Biomarker Testing Access for Rural Lung Cancer Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are the barriers for rural patients hoping to access biomarker tests? Dr. Samuel Cykert discusses the barriers for underrepresented lung cancer patients in rural areas face in accessing biomarker testing, citing issues like health insurance, economics, and language.

Download Resource Guide | Descargar guía de recursos

See More from [ACT]IVATED Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Enhancing Lung Cancer Care for Black and Latinx Patients | Tackling Challenges, Implementing Solutions

Enhancing Lung Cancer Care for Black and Latinx Patients | Tackling Challenges, Implementing Solutions

How Can We Advance Equitable Access to Precision Medicine in Lung Cancer Care?

How Can We Advance Equitable Access to Precision Medicine in Lung Cancer Care?

What Urgent Innovations Can Advance Lung Cancer Precision Medicine?

What Urgent Innovations Can Advance Lung Cancer Precision Medicine?

Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Cykert, one of the main barriers preventing Black and Latinx patients with lung cancer in rural areas from accessing biomarker testing, and what steps can be taken to address these barriers, including improving awareness, affordability, and availability of testing facilities?

Dr. Samuel Cykert:

Yeah, great, great question. There are several issues here. One is the issue of rural, and the other issue is patients of color who may have barriers of health insurance, barriers of economics, barriers of education, and especially in the case of Latinx folks, barriers of language. So it really is a multiple question, but one thing for sure is we know from past studies that technology diffusion is slow and tends to get out to rural areas later than other areas, and the other problem is treatment volume in rural areas.

So a lot of rural hospitals don’t do bio specimen testing, don’t have the capability of doing that, and so you have this kind of double whammy of low volume testing plus low volume treatment, it’s well-known that surgeons who do more operations, for instance, do better. So given all those factors, I would recommend that rural patients who have presumptive diagnosis of lung cancer, even a suspicion of lung cancer, for instance, a large mass, a greater than 2 centimeter mass on an x-ray or a CT scan, that those patients ask to be referred to the closest high volume center.

I think that’s an important step, and we also have to have close interactions with our rural colleagues so that they’re comfortable of treating aggressively things that are well-treatable in the rural environment and going on to the high-volume centers, the more specialized centers, when things have to be done more aggressively.

When you look at a lot of different healthcare disparities, especially in advanced diseases, a lot of them come from being in areas where technology diffusion hasn’t happened and people don’t have access to the same treatments that they do at higher volume centers.  My activation tip here is, for things like biomarker testing and advanced treatments, you need to go to the closest high volume center.


Share Your Feedback

Create your own user feedback survey

Enhancing Lung Cancer Care for Black and Latinx Patients | Tackling Challenges, Implementing Solutions

Enhancing Lung Cancer Care for Black and Latinx Patients | Tackling Challenges, Implementing Solutions from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are challenges and solutions to quality care for Black and Latinx non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients? Expert Dr. Samuel Cykert from UNC School of Medicine discusses challenges, solutions, and proactive patient advice toward quality care.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…for things like biomarker testing and advanced treatments, you need to go to the closest high volume center.”

Download Resource Guide | Descargar guía de recursos

See More from [ACT]IVATED Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Improving Biomarker Testing Access for Rural Lung Cancer Patients

Improving Biomarker Testing Access for Rural Lung Cancer Patients

How Can We Advance Equitable Access to Precision Medicine in Lung Cancer Care?

How Can We Advance Equitable Access to Precision Medicine in Lung Cancer Care?

What Urgent Innovations Can Advance Lung Cancer Precision Medicine?

What Urgent Innovations Can Advance Lung Cancer Precision Medicine?

Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

Dr. Cykert, what specific challenges do Black and Latinx patients with lung cancer often encounter in advocating for themselves within the healthcare system, and how can they navigate these challenges effectively to ensure they receive equitable and quality care?

Dr. Samuel Cykert:

Yes, and in our past research we discovered that there are certain implicit biases and communication biases that affect patients of color, and because of that, I think it’s really important to approach the clinical encounter with cancer care decision-makers with enthusiasm, that meaning making a direct statement that I’m very enthusiastic about getting care for my lung cancer, I’m very enthusiastic about biomarker testing, tailored therapy, surgery and research protocols. So please consider me for all those results, and I know what I said was just a mouthful.

And even if you can remember to just start with, I’m very enthusiastic about getting treatment, and biomarker testing would be good and I’m positive about it, how do you feel about it? Engage the clinician in the conversation so they really know that you’re part of the team and they’re part of the team, and you’re ready to move toward excellent treatment and you’re willing to consider even research stuff.


Share Your Feedback

Create your own user feedback survey

Key Resources for Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients and Families

Key Resources for Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients and Families from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What’s important for small cell lung cancer patients from underrepresented communities to know? Dr. Rafael Santana-Davila with the University of Washington School of Medicine shares advice for patient resources, his perspective about lung cancer stigma, and ways to mitigate issues with stigma.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…make sure that you ask your doctor, ‘Well, what about palliative care? What about social worker?’ or ‘I’m having trouble with this or that. Who can help me with this?’”

See More from [ACT]IVATED Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)

Related Resources:

Lungs with lung cancer ribbon

Megaphone

Woman doctor speaking with woman patient.

Advice for Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Considering Clinical Trials


Transcript:

Lisa Hatfield:

What key resources and support services do you typically recommend or provide to SCLC patients, particularly from underrepresented communities following their diagnosis?

Rafael Santana-Davila:

That is a good question that I don’t know the right answer to. So part of the resources that we share with the patient is a visit with a social worker, a visit with a nutritionist, a visit with our colleagues in palliative care, that they’re all part of treatment of the patient with cancer that is available both for patients of underrepresented communities or other patients.

So that is the activation tip for that is make sure that you ask your doctor, “Well, what about palliative care? What about social worker?” or “I’m having trouble with this or that. Who can help me with this?” And like we said before is a patient empowerment is…a patient that is empowered is a patient that asks all those questions and receives more help. There’s a lot of help that is out there and the key is to connect those individuals.

Lisa Hatfield:

What is your advice for a patient living with small cell lung cancer in rural areas who might not have access to state-of-the-art cancer care?

Rafael Santana-Davila:

Yes. So first of all, although people living in rural areas do not have access to major cancer centers…or let me rephrase that. They do not live in major cancer centers. Thanks to technology, they do have access. How? With telehealth. A lot of things that I do, which is medications, they don’t really have to see me for treatment. I can give advice on the treatment that can be instituted anywhere. So patients that live, again, in Eastern Washington, which is a rural part of the state, can see me through telehealth, and I can help them and their physicians who are not sub-specialists to direct their care.

And again, it’s important to know that it’s not that we’re smarter than the general community oncologists. We’re not. We just have more experience in this disease. We’ve seen a lot of things that happen, so we are able to recognize things when they happen and just have access to more clinical trials. So the activation tip for that question is make sure that…we said that before, that you seek a second opinion.

And that may not involve travel for many hours. That may be as simple as a telehealth appointment with a major cancer center of such state to know what is available. And also know that many clinical trials can now actually pay for lodging and pay for transportation to those centers. So although it’s going to be trickier for them to receive them, living in a rural area does not mean that you’re not eligible for that.

Lisa Hatfield:

Have you encountered any misconceptions or stigmas related to small cell lung cancer within underrepresented communities? And how do you address or mitigate these issues with your patients?

Rafael Santana-Davila: 

There is a lot of stigma in this disease. We know that in the great majority of patients with small cell lung cancer and lung cancer in general, there is a smoking component to it. So patients feel that this is something that they brought upon themselves sometimes and there’s a lot of stigma associated with it. And that is not true. Yes, this is a smoking-related condition, but smoking is an addiction. Patients do not smoke because they want to. They smoke because they get addicted to it.

Everybody that I’ve met who’s a smoker at some point has wanted to quit and they cannot quit, not because they don’t have the willpower, or not because they’re weak, it’s because they can’t. This is an addiction. And it’s actually cancer, both small cell and lung cancer happens in the minority of smokers. So it’s important to know that this is…yes, quitting smoking could have prevented this cancer, but quitting smoking is nothing that is easy. And even if they quit smoking, this could have come.

So it’s important to patients to know that this is not…they should not blame themselves. This is both for underrepresented minorities and the patients at large. Don’t blame yourself for this. This is nothing that you could have prevented. And this is not your fault that this happened to you.” The activation tip for this is there’s a lot of what patients need to talk about, a lot of things, and these are hard conversations that you need to have. They’re not comfortable many times, but you need to open up. You need to have these conversations with your family, and you need to really say what’s in your heart. So that would be my activation tip. 


Share Your Feedback:

Create your own user feedback survey

How Can Prostate Cancer Patients and Providers Help Ensure Quality Care?

How Can Prostate Cancer Patients and Providers Help Ensure Quality Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can prostate cancer patients and providers help ensure quality care? Host Dr. Nicole Rochester asks Dr. Petros Grivas to share insights about available patient resources and ways that providers can help extend improved prostate cancer diagnostics and treatments to patients for better care.

See More From Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where You Live


Related Resources:

How Can I Get the Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where I Live?


Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

So, Dr. Grivas, how can we ensure that a patient’s geographic location doesn’t dictate the quality of care that they receive? 

Dr. Grivas: 

A very important question for sure, and I think as you point it out, we have touched upon this before, but I think it is definitely much more to be said and done. More importantly, I think the location has to do with multiple differences in social constructs, right? The location of the distance from a cancer center with expertise is one thing at the time to get to the cancer center is related to that, and also the social support that the patient may have, if for example, a particular treatment, for example, a clinical trial, the requires a weekly visit to the cancer center, is that the feasible thing for the patient who lives miles and miles away in the rural areas of Oklahoma or somewhere else. Can we design clinical trials that are more friendly to these scenarios that require less frequent visits. Can we provide, if possible, funding for housing closer to the cancer center, and there are examples of cancer centers doing that. They provide temporary housing for the patient to be able to be close to the cancer center, so they don’t even worry about going back and forth across the state lines sometimes. 

The other thing, of course, is insurance coverage, and again, this can have some relation to location, and it’s something we have to think about, how can we help our patients who have significant co-pays because of the recommended insurance to that location being supported by foundation or all other funds that the cancer center or the state, or again, other foundations, we have. The other issues about diagnostics and treatments, there has been some interesting discussion about particularly prostate cancer, about access to what we call next generation sequencing, which is a diagnostic test aiming to profile or fingerprint the cancer DNA to look for particular mutations that the cancer may have that may lead to a particular treatment options. 

 If, for example, mutation A is present, can we use a drug X that might be relevant in that context of a mutation and a recent data that was presented at ASCO 2021 showed that if you look at those mutations, they’re not very different between, for example, white and Black patients, there are similar types and frequencies of mutations. What is different is access to the test and, of course, access to the therapy of the test. So, I think we have to do a better job bringing ourselves to the community, extending our opportunities to the patient to get connected with the healthcare system, and they’ll build bridges to bring the patient and closer to the cancer center offering those tests. Work with patient navigation to help patients understand the significant value of the follow-up, but also provide them with a way that there’s equitable access to diagnostics and treatments. 

How Can BIPOC Prostate Cancer Patients Protect Themselves Against Care Inequities?

How Can BIPOC Prostate Cancer Patients Protect Themselves Against Care Inequities? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo

How can BIPOC prostate cancer patients help protect themselves against care inequities? Host Dr. Nicole Rochester and Dr. Yaw Nyame share their perspectives about factors that work against equitable care for some BIPOC patients – and how patients and providers can work toward improving care for better health outcomes.

See More From Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where You Live


Related Resources:

How Can Prostate Cancer Patients and Providers Help Ensure Quality Care?


Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

We know that there are as with every other type of cancer and every other disease, there are significant health disparities with BIPOC patients. And so, Dr. Nyame, I’d love for you to talk about specifically with prostate cancer, some of the disparities that you see in your practice and in your research, and then what are some things that patients of color can do to protect themselves from these inequities? 

Dr. Nyame: 

This is a very important topic for me, it’s something that I am very passionate about, and as Dr. Grivas alluded to, I am doing a lot of research on, and I think the statistics are so grey. Black men are 80 percent more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. So the average man in the United States has a one and nine lifetime risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, that’s probably one in six or one in seven Black men. Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer compared to men of other races and ethnicities in the United States, and a lot of this is driven by the social milieu and factors that we’ve talked about today. What troubles me is when we talk about these statistics, I fear that that in of itself is crippling for some Black men, “If I have this diagnosis, and I’m not going to do well. Why should I do anything?” And I can tell you that the literature and all the research that we do, and it gets refreshed every 10 years or so, someone will do the study and it shows that if we have Black men and men of other races or white men, and we give them the same treatment for the same level of disease, that the outcomes are actually very similar. And a better way to state that for me is if you’re diagnosed early and you get the treatment that you should get irrespective of your race, it seems like outcomes can be quite good. 

And so, a lot of what we see with regards to prostate cancer inequities are driven by lower treatment rates and probably an impact of lower quality care. And when I say that, what does that mean? Well, do you get your care at places like the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance or the Cleveland Clinic, or Johns Hopkins or MD Anderson, where you have providers who are expert and do a lot of prostate cancer care, or are you being seen by someone in the community who I guarantee is an excellent clinician, but doesn’t have the same resources and the same expertise, in the sense of being focused on one disease process or one set of cancers? For instance, we are genitourinary cancer specialists, a fancy term for being cancer doctors of the plumbing system. But because that’s all we focus on, we know a lot about the process, we know what works, and we know what the standards of care. So, I think when you can get the right treatment at the right time, and you can get it from teams that are really specialized in this, that our outcomes are going to not care about what your self-defined race is when you check the box. 

The problem is, how do we get…how do we close that gap that exists currently that doesn’t allow people to get that care, and I think we’ve talked about rurality, so I think…I grew up in Oklahoma, and I could see that if you are in the sticks in Oklahoma and you’re not near a cancer center, like something down in Dallas, that your care might be impacted, but…especially if you have to travel a lot and it’s expensive. But we have major U.S. cities like Los Angeles where you may share a ZIP code with a millionaire but use very different health services. So, it’s not always a reflection of how far you have to travel, but it also is factors about how welcoming institutions that provide high quality care can feel for populations like our BIPOC populations who sometimes have been the subject of medical experimentation and lower quality care sometimes because they might not get shuttled to the same services historically. And I think we have a lot to undo to rebuild the trust that is required to have Black men not be fearful of seeking care from us, but be trusting. 

What Barriers Do Prostate Cancer Patients Face When Seeking Care?

What Barriers Do Prostate Cancer Patients Face When Seeking Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What barriers do prostate cancer patients face in gaining access to care? Host Dr. Nicole Rochester and Dr. Yaw Nyame and Dr. Petros Grivas share their perspectives on factors that impact access to care and ways some barriers can be removed to improve prostate cancer care.

See More From Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where You Live


Related Resources:

How Can I Get the Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where I Live?


Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Drs. Nyame and Grivas, we know that location, socioeconomic status, insurance, financial hardships, lack of urologists in rural areas, geographic distance services and access to transportation all play an important role in the outcomes for patients and families facing a prostate cancer diagnosis. So, I want to start with our first question, and we’ll start with you, Dr. Grivas, what are some of the barriers, both prostate cancer patients and their care partners face when seeking care? 

Dr. Grivas:

The number of those factors have to do with the location of the patient as you mentioned, patients regardless of race, if they live in a rural community, then they have less communication or contact with a medical care system, and that’s in all reality there’s data suggesting that a cruelty to states this access to care issue is becoming more and more noticeable, and the distance involved in some ways to get a medical facility, let alone a specialized medical facility, specialized in-person culture. It can be a big problem. The other issue that we have seen many times, again, in some communities more than others, is a healthcare literacy and the preventive mindset as I call it, and that again, can transpire across races, but maybe even more intense in some of the populations. And when I talk about health literacy and preventive mindset, it’s about the relationship, an individual of the healthcare system, and sometimes the distrust, right, that may take place and also the, I would say comfort that the patient has to enter and access a medical care system that they can allow the providers to take care of them, and these are real, I would say, examples that we have seen based on having this concern of letting sales be taken care of in a medical system, competing problems and barriers include financial contraction, that’s a big one.  

Insurance coverage. We know that patients who…I would say social determinants of health may have not very good coverage, and this may be restricting award medical facilities that they can access, and also the cost of care, co-pays, for example, when diagnostic tests or acute interventions for orderly available agents can be a big carrier and no compliance can be diminished with co-pay. Of course, you mentioned many other factors, transportation issues, finding coverage of work, getting day off work can be a problem for some patients, and also the cost of transportation or lodging or parking sometimes can be a problem or even the anxiety to go to a big city and deal with a traffic, of course. So there are many factors, of course, but I think we have to have a systematic approach how to catalog them and address them in a comprehensive way, and I think there are some improvements and we can talk about them today, for example, telemedicine and others, but I think the list is long, and we have to keep an open mind and engaged patient advocates in cataloging those barriers. Maybe Dr. Nyame can comment further in that regard. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

You covered a lot of ground, and I appreciate that. Dr. Nyame, I’d love for you to either add to that list or maybe expand based on your perspectives. 

Dr. Nyame: 

Dr. Grivas didn’t leave me with much to cover, which is great. I think what you hear, in his answer to that question is that this is really a social issue, and I think when we talk about inequities in health, we have to recognize that race in this country, and many places around the world really reflects a social construct, and so the things that really predict how people are going to be able to utilize our services and how well they’re going to do reflect that greater social context, and so to me…you have to meet the patient where they are. And the strength of the relationships that you can build between the healthcare system and the communities that are at risk, especially the ones that have the highest disproportionate risk of bad outcomes or not being able to utilize services is important. And so the barriers include all the things we talked about, but a lot of them that we’ve talked about have been very much healthcare-facing, so we talk about transportation, what we mean that in the source of transportation to our facilities or we talk about money, but we talk about money and the ability to pay for our services, we also miss the other ways in which those social barriers and factors impact the ability to prioritize one’s health. 

Dr. Nyame: 

And so that is a really big problem. And something that we also need to put in the context of this conversation. I think when we take the covers off and we really see what our patients’ lives are like, sometimes we recognize that it’s not just about their ability to utilize the services that we provide, but that there are bigger issues at hand that also need addressing. Those aren’t in Dr. Grivas and I’s domain, but I think we have to understand those things to meet our patients where they are. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Absolutely, I really appreciate that both of you have really focused on those social determinants of health. I appreciate you mentioning racism, and the fact that the patients being able to prioritize their health, I think historically in medicine, we have blamed our patients for not taking care of themselves, so to speak, without a full appreciation of all of these barriers that both of you have just identified, so I really appreciate that. 

How Can I Get the Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where I Live?

How Can I Get the Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where I Live? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can prostate cancer patients ensure they get quality care even if they live in rural areas? Noted experts, Dr. Petros Grivas and Dr. Yaw Nyame share advice and discuss how to receive optimal care no matter your geography or financial status. Learn about resources and digital tools you can utilize to ensure better care no matter where you live. 

See More From Best Prostate Cancer Care No Matter Where You Live


Related Resources:


Transcript:

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Hello and welcome. I’m Dr. Nicole Rochester, your host for today’s Patient Empowerment Network program, and we are so happy that you’ve tuned in. Today we’re going to be talking about how prostate cancer patients can truly get the best care no matter where you and your family live, we’re going to talk about things like how can I remove roadblocks in my care to gain access to state-of-the-art treatment? Will my insurance limit me if I wanna get a second opinion as a care partner, how do I best advocate for my loved one and is a clinical right for me? The answers to some of these questions we receive revolve around awareness, feeling empowered to ask questions and connecting to the right resources at the right time. In this program we’ll be learning just that as we meet our experts. It is my honor and privilege to be joined by Dr. Petros Grivas, Associate Professor and clinical director of the genitourinary cancer program at the University of Washington. And Dr. Yaw Nyame, Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology at the University of Washington. Thank you so much for joining us today, gentlemen. 

Dr. Nyame:

Thank you for having us. 

Dr. Grivas: 

Thank you so much for having us. It’s an honor and pleasure to be with you. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

It is my honor as well. Please remember that this program is not a substitute for seeking medical care, so please be sure to connect with your healthcare team on the best options for you. Now, let’s take a few minutes to set the stage and give a brief overview of barriers in the way of achieving equitable prostate cancer treatment. Doctors Nyame and Grivas, we know that location, socioeconomic status, insurance, financial hardships, lack of urologists in rural areas, geographic distance services and access to transportation all play an important role in the outcomes for patients and families facing a prostate cancer diagnosis. So, I wanna start with our first question, and we’ll start with you, Dr. Grivas, what are some of the barriers that prostate cancer, let me do that one again. What are some of the barriers, both prostate cancer patients and their care partners face when seeking care? 

Dr. Grivas: 

Thank you so much. These are really important discussions, and I’m glad we’re doing this program. I think you covered a number of those barriers in your introduction, and I would definitely agree with all of them because many of them are important. The number of those factors have to do with the location of the patient as you mentioned, patients regardless of race, if they live in a rural community, then they have less communication or contact with a medical care system, and that’s in all reality there’s data suggesting that a cruelty to states this access to care issue is becoming more and more noticeable, and the distance involved in some ways to get a medical facility, let alone a specialized medical facility, specialized in-person culture. It can be a big problem. The other issue that we have seen many times, again, in some communities more than others, is healthcare literacy and the preventive mindset as I call it, and that again, can transpire across races, but maybe even more intense in some of the populations. And when I talk about health literacy and preventive mindset, it’s about the relationship, an individual of the healthcare system, and sometimes the distrust, right, that may take place and also the, I would say comfort that the patient has to enter and access a medical care system that they can allow the providers to take care of them, and these are real, I would say, examples that we have seen based on having this concern of letting sales be taken care of in a medical system, competing problems and barriers include financial contraction, that’s a big one. 

Insurance coverage. We know that patients who… I would say social determinants of health may have not very good coverage, and this may be restricting award medical facilities that they can access, and also the cost of care, co-pays, for example, when diagnostic tests or acute interventions for orderly available agents can be a big carrier and no compliance can be diminished with co-pay. Of course, you mentioned many other factors, transportation issues, finding coverage of work, getting day off work can be a problem for some patients, and also the cost of transportation or lodging or parking sometimes can be a problem or even the anxiety to go to a big city and deal with a traffic of course. So there are many factors, of course, but I think we have to have a systematic approach how to catalog them and address them in a comprehensive way, and I think there are some improvements and we can talk about them today, for example, telemedicine and others, but I think the list is long, and we have to keep an open mind and engaged patient advocates in cataloging those barriers. Maybe Dr. Nyame can comment further in that regard.  

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Thank you so much, Dr. Grivas, yeah, you covered a lot of ground, and I appreciate that Dr. Nyame I’d love for you to either add to that list or maybe expand based on your perspectives. 

Dr. Nyame:

Dr. Grivas didn’t leave me with much to cover, which is great. I think what you hear, in his answer to that question is that this is really a social issue, and I think when we talk about inequities in health, we have to recognize that race in this country, and many places around the world really reflects a social construct, and so the things that really predict how people are going to be able to utilize our services and how well they’re going to do reflect that greater social context, and so to me… You have to meet the patient where they are. And the strength of the relationships that you can build between the healthcare system and the communities that are at risk, especially the ones that have the highest disproportionate risk of bad outcomes or not being able to utilize services is important. And so the barriers include all the things we talked about, but a lot of them that we’ve talked about have been very much healthcare-facing, so we talk about transportation, what we mean that in the source of transportation to our facilities or we talk about money, but we talk about money and the ability to pay for our services, we also miss the other ways in which those social barriers and factors impact the ability to prioritize one’s health. 

And so that is a really big problem. And something that we also need to put in the context of this conversation. I think when we take the covers off and we really see what our patients’ lives are like, sometimes we recognize that it’s not just about their ability to utilize the services that we provide, but that there are bigger issues at hand that also need addressing. Those aren’t in Dr. Grivas and I’s domain, but I think we have to understand those things to meet our patients where they are. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Absolutely, I really appreciate that both of you have really focused on those social determinants of health. I appreciate you mentioning racism, and the fact that the patients being able to prioritize their health, I think historically in medicine, we have blamed our patients for not taking care of themselves, so to speak, without a full appreciation of all of these barriers that both of you have just identified, so I really appreciate that. 

So we started slightly to talk about solutions, but let’s shift to solutions and what are some of the solutions that you all recommend for some of these barriers, and like you said, as physicians, a lot of that is going to be out of your purview, but I’d love for each of you to suggest any solutions for our patients and care who may be facing some of these barriers, so this time we’ll start with you, Dr. Nyame.  

Dr. Nyame: 

This is an area where I think we need to do better in collecting information to understand where the need is, and so I think there is a very much a need for translational health services or patient-centered research, where we do the simple thing, if I was gonna open up a lemonade stand in the middle of Seattle, I’d probably ask a few people what their needs are around lemonade before I open the stand, and I think in medicine, we often offer our services and solutions without having had that simple conversation of What are the needs? I think in addition to that, we have to understand that equitable care might mean offering additional services for certain populations, so for us at our cancer center, for instance, we’ve recently instituted a patient navigator program, something that’s been around for a long time, and other sites but it’s allowing us to do that, go through that exercise of providing some equitable care by helping people coordinate appointments, find their way to financial resources that might support them, and just to be there as a support in the very difficult time of having a new cancer diagnosis, so I think that’s a well-proven and well-established method for helping people get access to care. 

The other thing I’ll add is that we make decisions, I think as humans, we make decisions through community, and sometimes that’s our partner, sometimes that somebody at the gym, sometimes that’s a co-worker, and there are a lot of really fantastic patient advocacy networks that exist that can help people find this new community, and I think cancer patients share a very unique bond and in a very unique way to communicate with one another because they’re living through this particular diagnosis, and so for in the case of prostate cancer, especially prostate cancer in black men, you have the Prostate Health Education Network, you have Zero Cancer, you have Us TOO, you have the Prostate Cancer Foundation, probably leaving some advocacy groups off and I’m probably gonna get in trouble, but I think that there’s that opportunity to reach out to others and just learn… What did you go through, what worked for you? How can I meet my goals of care through just conversation with other patients and survivors, and I’ll try to leave something for Dr. Grivas to the conversation ’cause clearly I could go on and on. 

Nicole Rochester: 

Dr. Grivas? 

Dr. Grivas: 

I’ll tell you that I am learning every day from Dr. Nyame. He’s fantastic work in this important topic, and I think he covered the answer so well, if I can just add a few more things just to expand on this sorts. And these are things that already he’s doing in his programmatic development in our institution as well. I think one of the important things we have to acknowledge is the issue of systemic racism and implicit bias that I think you referred to Dr. Rochester. I think the more we talk about, the more transparent we are with it, the better because we can think about what are unconscious or subconscious thoughts that we may have, you know this patient doesn’t care about themselves. Why should we go the extra mile to help them? We should go the extra mile to help them because this patient may have less inside of the situation, and they need more resources and as a healthcare system, we should try to earn that patient, right? We should not let that patient go because every patient matters, right? And I think every life matters. I think that’s important. I think overall a systemic issue to discuss. The other thing is getting our sense of the community, and I think the examples of studies we have done in the clinic and other areas that we try to utilize the wisdom and the help of local leaders in those communities for example, underserved populations go to local churches or barber shops or gyms as Dr. Nyame mentioned and collaborate, work with the local leaders and see how we can have a dialogue with the patients there. How can we establish this trust that may be missing, how we can convey that health is important, and prevention is important, and treatment is important, how can we help with financial constraints, right? How can we get patients to the cancer center without them having to worry about how to get there, how can we reach out and have screening in the present county screening in the community, if it’s indicated then access to care telemedicine, and that brings an issue, do the patients have equipment for telemedicine, a computer, we take it for granted, but it may not be. So given those resources, organizing some local centers with this Men’s Health Day, just to get people in a room and educate them, but also learning from them what are the barriers to take it into account, not talk down to them, but learning with them and from them. 

The other thing is research and that will have to do a better job to include an offer in an equitable manor clinical trials to our patients including patients from different races and we are doing, I think, overall, okay, but we are not doing enough, we have to do better in order to provide this opportunities to our patients and the role of patient navigators is great. We can set examples, and we have patients who feel much more comfortable when they have a patient navigator. Sometimes if it happens to be in the same race with a patient then the patient feels more comfortable. They have someone that they can trust or it will be easier to talk to, and I think we should definitely improve and work harder to provide access to research inequitable manor to our patients. The last point I would say is, patient co-pay assistance programs and foundations, I think we can definitely include more resources to our patients, philanthropy, foundation support and state programs in order to give those patients the resource they need again to achieve this holy grail, which is equitable health care. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

I love that you all are focusing on equity, which as we know, is giving every patient what they need in order to achieve their optimal health, and as both of you have stated, that’s very different than equality, and so this concept that we really have to meet our patients where they are, and that some of our patients may be a little bit more than others, and that’s okay, in fact, that’s really what we have to do in order to eliminate these disparities, so I really appreciate both of your thoughts and that’s a great lead in to our next segment, which is really focused on racial and ethnic disparities, and both of you have kind of touched on this a little bit already, so we know that there are as with every other type of cancer and every other disease, there are significant health disparities with BIPOC patients, and so Dr. Nyame, I’d love for you to talk about specifically with prostate cancer, some of the disparities that you see in your practice and in your research, and then what are some things that patients of color can do to protect themselves from these inequities? 

Dr. Nyame: 

This is a very important topic for me, it’s something that I am very passionate about, and as Dr. Grivas alluded to am doing a lot of research on, and I think the statistics are so grey. Black men are 80% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. So the average man in the United States has a one and nine lifetime risk of being diagnosed prostate cancer, that’s probably one in six or one in seven black men. Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer compared to men of other races and ethnicity in the United States, and a lot of this is driven by the social milieu and factors that we’ve talked about today. What troubles me is when we talk about these statistics, I fear that that in of itself is crippling for some black men. If I have this diagnosis and I’m not gonna do well. Why should I do anything? And I can tell you that the literature and all the research that we do, and it gets refreshed every 10 years or so, someone will do the study and it shows that if we have Black men and men of other races or white men, and we give them the same treatment for the same level of disease, that the outcomes are actually very similar, and a better way to state that for me is if you’re diagnosed early and you get the treatment that you should get irrespective of your race, it seems like outcomes can be quite good. 

And so a lot of what we see with regards to prostate cancer inequities are driven by lower treatment rates and probably an impact of lower quality care. And when I say that, what does that mean? Well, do you get your care at places like the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance or the Cleveland Clinic, or John Hopkins or MD Anderson, where you have providers who are expert and do a lot of prostate cancer care, or are you being seen by someone in the community who I guarantee is an excellent clinician, but doesn’t have the same resources and the same expertise in the sense of being focused on one disease process or one set of cancers, for instance, we are genital urinary cancer specialist, a fancy term for being cancer doctors of the plumbing system, but because that’s all we focus on, we know a lot about the process we know what works, and we know what the standards of care. So I think when you can get the right treatment at the right time, and you can get it from teams that are really specialized in this, that our outcomes are going to not care about what your self-defined races when you check box. 

The problem is, how do we get… How do we close that gap that exists currently that doesn’t allow people to get that care, and I think we’ve talked about rurality, so I think… I grew up in Oklahoma, and I could see that if you are in the sticks in Oklahoma and you’re not near a cancer center, like something down in Dallas, that your care might be impacted, but… Especially if you have to travel a lot and it’s expensive. But we have major US cities like Los Angeles where you may share a zip code with a millionaire but use very different health services, so it’s not always a reflection of how far you have to travel, but it also is factors about how welcoming institutions that provide high quality care can feel for populations like our BIPOC populations who sometimes have been the subject of medical experimentation and lower quality care sometimes because they might not get shuttled to the same services historically, and I think we have a lot to undo to rebuild the trust that is required to have black men not be fearful of seeking care from us, but be trusting. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Absolutely, and certainly the COVID pandemic has really brought that whole mistrust and distrust to light, so I appreciate you touching on that. We’re going to move to talk about treatment access, and I love how this conversation is flowing because so many of these elements have already been discussed, so we’re gonna talk about treatment access for prostate cancer patients, and we know that sometimes the barriers that patients face, as you mentioned actually limit their access to quality care and to appropriate treatment. So, Dr. Grivas, how can we ensure that a patient’s geographic location doesn’t dictate the quality of care that they receive? 

 Dr. Grivas: 

A very important question for sure, and I think as you point it out, we have tasked upon this before, but I think it is definitely much more to be said and done. More importantly, I think the location has to do with multiple differences in social constructs, right? The location of the distance from a cancer center with expertise is one thing at the time to get to the cancer center is related to that, and also the social support that the patient may have, if for example, a particular treatment, for example, a clinical trial, the requires a weekly visit to the cancer center, is that the feasible thing for the patient who lives miles and miles away in the rural areas of Oklahoma as Dr. Nyame mentioned or somewhere else. Can we design a clinical trial that are more friendly to these scenarios that require less frequent visits. Can we provide, if possible, funding for housing closer to the Cancer Center, and there are examples of cancer centers doing that. They provide temporary housing for the patient to be able be close the cancer center, so they don’t even worry about going back and forth across the state lines sometimes. 

The other thing, of course, is insurance coverage, and again, this can have some relation to location, and it’s something we have to think about, how can we help our patients who have significant copays because of the recommended insurance to that location being supported by foundation or all other funds that the cancer center or the state, or again, other foundations, we have. The other issues about diagnostics and treatments, there has been some interesting discussion about particularly prostate cancer, about access to what we call next generation sequencing, which is a diagnostic test aiming to profile or fingerprint the cancer DNA to look for particular mutations that the cancer may have that may lead to a particular treatment options. 

If, for example, mutation A is present, can we use a drug X that might be relevant in that context of a mutation and a recent data that was presented at ASCO 2021 showed that if you look at those mutations, they’re not very different between, for example, white and Black patients, there are similar types and frequencies of mutations. What is different is access to the test and, of course, access to the [inaudible] of the test. So I think we have to do a better job bringing ourselves to the community, extending our opportunities to the patient to get connected with the healthcare system, and they’ll build bridges to bring the patient and closer to the cancer center offering those tests. Work with patient navigation to help patients understand the significant value of the follow-up, but also provide them with a way that there’s equitable access to diagnostics and treatments. 

 Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Thank you, thank you so much, Dr. Grivas and you’ve touched on something that I’m going to ask Dr. Nyame to elaborate on which is these fancy tests and these new technologies and things, and what we know is that a lot of times the patient themselves, if they are not aware of these particular tests, then because of all the disparities that we’ve talked about, they may not even be offered to them. And so a question for you, Dr. Nyame, how can we empower patients so that they don’t feel limited in their care, and how do we make them aware of these treatment options and diagnostic options that Dr. Grivas just spoke of? 

Dr. Nyame: 

You know that’s very challenging because Dr. Grivas, and I see this in our clinical practice, we have patients who are very savvy, that’ll come in and say that I’ve heard that there’s a PSM in San Francisco. Do you have it in Seattle? If you don’t have it in Seattle, I’m gonna go to San Francisco. And for every patient I had like that, who might be, Hey, have you read this latest article, I can have someone who has no idea of what’s going on with their diagnosis, and so how we create opportunities to bring those patients and know very little up to somewhere close, maybe not quite to the demanding the PSMA or a fancy scan level, but sophisticated enough to feel empowered in their health decision-making as something where I think we need to do research because we know that certain tools, navigation, advocacy groups can help in that arena, but I think that we need to understand what the tools are that patients want. What’s interesting is when you query patients, which we’ve done in a study and you say, What are the most pressing issues for you in your prostate cancer diagnosis, whether it’s in the localized setting or in the advanced or metastatic setting, the one thing that has resonated over and over again, irrespective of race is I need help making decisions, I need tools that will make it, me more efficient in how I make my decisions. And so I think without punting the answer too much, we need to do better, and I think part of that starts with listening. I do think that providers can be trained to provide that information in a more efficient manner. We do not… We as clinicians, are built into a system where the number of patients we see really correlates with how we get paid, and there’s not a doctor that doesn’t go to work excited to educate and build relationships with patients, that’s not the case, but there is a time crunch and I feel like in situations where there is a bigger gap and knowledge and understanding, we often don’t have enough time and built into our day to have the discussion, so for me, for a lot of my patients who I feel like have a lower understanding of what’s going on with regards to their prostate cancer diagnosis, it’s really important for me to build into our visit the understanding that whatever we don’t cover can be addressed at a later time and that we don’t have to make a decision with that at particular visit. So when I think about this, it’s sort of like your favorite barbershop or your favorite grocery store, your favorite sandwich place, the relationships matter. 

And I think when we talk about empowering patients to be advocates for themselves in their clinical visits, I think there needs to be an understanding from patients that if it doesn’t feel right, that they have options and to take their time in the decision. Prostate cancer, unlike other diseases, that Dr. Grivas and I treat doesn’t have to have the dial turn to 10 or 11 right away, and we need to make a decision because time is extremely sensitive, even in our most aggressive localized settings, which is what I treat, we have the opportunity to take weeks, if not months, to come to a decision. 

Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Thank you, thank you so much, I appreciate that. And certainly as a physician who’s also a health advocate, I strongly agree with what you said about if the relationship is not working, that there are options, and I know that that may not always be the case depending on where patients live, but I regularly encourage my clients to sometimes you have to look somewhere else, sometimes you have to get a second opinion or maybe even fire your doctor if the relationship is not mutually beneficial, so I appreciate you sharing that. Dr. Grivas, do you have anything to add in terms of how patients can take a proactive approach to their healthcare and how they can build this confidence we’ve been talking about and express their concerns to their medical team? 

Dr. Grivas: 

I think Dr. Nyame covered it so well. I think it’s critically important for all of us to recognize that the finding out the why is probably the key to answer those questions, why there is this distrust, why someone is not paying attention so her own health because they have to try to make ends meet and keep family fed during the day time, and they don’t have time to think about their own health as Dr. Nyame mentioned before, at the same time, empowering the patient that they are the center of this relationship. 

Why doesn’t Dr. Nyame go to the clinic in the morning is because of patients, so our training is patient-centered and our practice is patient-centered and our research is patient-centered, so the patient should feel that right from the door, that this is a service to them. And we’re doing what we’re doing to help their life being longer, longer survival, as we call it, or better, better quality of life, and listening to the patient’s needs is important because of the time crunch that Dr. Nyame mentioned before, I think many of us, probably all of us are within situations where we don’t have enough time to listen advocate, what the person have to say, that’s why I think it’s important to have opportunities for separate visits and utilize better other mechanisms, exact mechanisms, patient navigation I think it’s a critical part of our care, social workers, case managers, financial counselors, nutritionist, genetic counselors, looking at genetics in for the disposition to cancer which is much more common than we think occurrences sometimes we be higher in some certain populations. Having this service available to patients, can help a lot because they will give them knowledge, and knowledge is power by itself, so give them the center, we’re here for them. Why they’re here, it’s because we want to help them and giving them also resources, they need to get now let’s information, when they feel they have more knowledge and they feel that they have control, they can communicate back and give feedback of how we can do better and also, what are the priorities of their needs, so we can address those, what matters to the patient, and this can apply to base and care, and also is what questions we’re asking? Research should be defined by patient priority, so all of those factors should be a dialogue with a patient, I think advocacy groups can be a great liaison to help us disseminate this concept and help again, empowering the patients. I struggle believe that explaining the why and giving knowledge, the data points in a simple and lay manner, can patients think being more in control. 

 
Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Absolutely, thank you, both of you. I love the patient-centered focus, that is something that admittedly, we’ve gotten away from that to some degree in medicine because of the time crunches that both of you have mentioned, and I love that you said knowledge is power. So as we close, I’d love for each of you to share maybe a couple of key questions that patients, our care partners facing prostate cancer should ask of their treatment team to ensure that they’re receiving appropriate care. 

So we’ll start with you, Nyame. Any key questions that patients should be asking their care team when they seek treatment or diagnosis of prostate cancer. 

Absolutely, I think that there’s a long list. Actually, I’ll tell you, my new prostate cancer diagnosis visits are usually my longest because there’s a lot to consider. I do think depending on what you’re having done and what you’re being considered for, so let’s say in the localized setting, prostate cancer is confined to the prostate, and you’re thinking about treatment like a surgery or radiation therapy, you really want to know what that center and what that provider’s experience is because we have a lot of supporting evidence that the more people doing this… No one’s going to be surprised by what I’m about to say, but the more that someone does is the better they’re gonna be at it. Okay, and so making sure your team has a good experience with what you’re seeking to have done is important, and I think it’s well within your rights as a patient to understand that, so I think advocate for that. Secondly, I think basic questions, just to understand the relationship, I think… I like it when patients wanna know a little bit about me because I’m gonna be… They’re gonna be in my hands, and so again, the importance of that relationship building and your visit is crucial. 

Lastly, I think when you come to the visit, have a list of questions based off of what you’ve researched and write them down, I find my most sophisticated patients or crossing off questions as I’m talking, ’cause they came prepared and so that preparation… The act of doing a little bit of reading, there are a lot of resources, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, for instance, has a very nice patient guide that’s written by patients and language that’s really digestible and edited by experts, and so going through that and coming with your list of questions, I think is a really important thing for your visit, and those are just a few things I can think of that can lead to a meaningful clinic visit and exchange. 

 
Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Excellent, I’m a huge fan of questions and being prepared for visits, what about you, Dr. Grivas are there one or two key questions that you feel patients or their care partners should ask? 

Dr. Grivas: 

Great answers by Dr. Nyame, I totally agree. I think started with the basics, What this diagnosis means for me, what is the current extent of the cancer, we call the states, and what is the outlook, what is the overall prognosis or at least estimate of the outcome, that’s a reasonable question to ask and again some places more detail, some others may not, and it’s important for us also to ask the base and what they want to know, how much they want to know, I would take in things of them, they want to know the entirety of the information because it makes… Help them make decisions. The other, I think it’s important point, what are the treatment options and what is the intent of the treatment, what are we trying to achieve by giving treatment, are we trying to cure, eradicate or eliminate the culture, are we to prolong life, are we trying to improve quality of life or are we just trying control the cancer, so what are the goals of the treatment and what are the metrics of success, so what will be a successful outcome of that treatment? How do we measure that? And I think it’s also important. 

Two more points, I would if I may. I think, again, going back to the importance of genetic counseling even more in prostate cancer, I think we recognize the importance in the aspect of patient treatment because some treatment options may depend on finding mutations. But also the importance of the family, how much can prevent cancers in the brother family, close and extended family, if we find the mutation, can we set this mutation for other family members and do screening to prevent cancer prevention is ideal if we can do that and I think that’s a good discussion, so the patient can come to the visit if possible, by doing some homework about the family history. It’s hard for of us now, what’s happening in that chasm, right? But we do have the time to be informed of the importance of the question, this can help and expedite in our resources like to genetic counseling. And the last points, research, I want to again make the point, we should all do a better job to offer innovative clinical trials to patients across races, and it should be a very important point again equitable healthcare. And the patient should ask are clinical trials an option for me and do I have a clinical trial option? And I think it’s a great question, and hopefully this can help the patient get to integrative treatment, but also help the field. 

The research would get important answers, and the important answers can be for all the community and the specific populations, if we do trials, clinical trials with only the white patients, do we have the answer for the black patients, or we have the answer for both and other races and ethnicities as well. 

Dr. Nyame: 

And I do wanna take this opportunity to add one more thing because Dr. Grivas was talked about what does your treatment mean for you, and in this discussion about prostate cancer, we cannot talk about what questions do you bring without mentioning the impact, quality of life of our treatments, and I think that sometimes this is the elephant in the room that leads to the decision to not pursue treatment, and so I want to take this opportunity as the urologist to say, This is the time to talk about what treatment is gonna do for sexual function. This is the time to talk about what treatment means for your urinary symptoms and quality of life, a good and healthy discussion around these things need to happen during your visit, because I think sometimes what patients expect to have happen with treatment and reality don’t match. And you have an expert in front of you that can really give you some input as to what to expect, and in a similar vein, when you meet with survivors, these are some of the things that I know patients tell me they’re worried about, and these are people who are living it, that can give you really valuable information on that piece of quality of life, and I hope that those conversations can help us close that treatment disparity that we see between black men and white men with prostate cancer. 

 Dr. Nicole Rochester: 

Such wonderful points. This has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much, Dr. Nyame and thank you Dr. Grivas for just illuminating so many important issues, just to briefly summarize, we’ve talked about the disparities that exist in prostate cancer, diagnosis and treatment based on geographic location, based on finances, insurance that is access and… Yes, even race and ethnicity, and you all have done a wonderful job providing solutions, we’ve talked about the importance of advocating for yourself and your loved ones, the importance of being educated and doing some research, coming to those visits with your questions, making sure that you form a relationship with your treating physicians and sometimes perhaps seeking someone else, if that’s not possible, so just… So many gems, and I just wanna thank both of you for spending this time with us today, and I wanna thank you all for tuning in to this Patient Empowerment Network program. I’m Dr. Nicole Rochester, and thank you for joining us. 

Dr. Grivas: 

Thank you. 

How Can We Address Noted Disparities in Multiple Myeloma?

How Can We Address Noted Disparities in Multiple Myeloma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo

What can patients and healthcare providers do to improve health disparities for myeloma patients? Expert Dr. Joseph Mikhael explains the communities that need more outreach about myeloma and those he views as vital to educating about myeloma risk and symptoms for earlier diagnosis and better health outcomes.

See More From the Myeloma TelemEDucation Empowerment Resource Center

Related Resources:

 
How Can Myeloma Patients Take Disease Ownership and Connect With Resources?

How Can Myeloma Patients Take Disease Ownership and Connect With Resources?

What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine for Myeloma Patients?

Will Telemedicine Be a Mainstay for Myeloma Patients After the Pandemic?

Will Telemedicine Be a Mainstay for Myeloma Patients After the Pandemic?

 

Transcript:

Dr. Joseph Mikhael:

Well, I have to tell you, this is a very personal issue for me, disparities in multiple myeloma, and I have the privilege of being involved in many programs and platforms to try and address this. And like with any major consideration, there isn’t a simple solution, it is going to take a multi-fold solution that has many parts. The first part that I think is critical is engagement of our communities, whether it is the Black community, the Hispanic community, even though in more rural areas or patients uninsured, we really require a kind of an engagement that’s real to build trust, to build confidence, this is stemmed from years of mistrust and understandably, so that we have to re-build.

I try to do that personally in my practice, but advocate for it on a larger sphere. Secondly, I want to empower my patients to learn and for communities to learn, whether someone has myeloma might have my load or as already myeloma, and I don’t have it might have it, or do you have it? Those patients need to be educated about myeloma so that they can understand who’s at risk and facilitate a more early and a more accurate diagnosis. Thirdly, I believe very much so, in educating the primary care world, the majority of patients with myeloma are still diagnosed by a primary care physician. They may ultimately see a hematologist-oncologist to confirm that, but the suspicion comes at the primary care level. And so I’m involved in multiple programs to educate primary care docs to think about myeloma, as I like to say, “If you don’t take a temperature, a patient won’t have a fever, you need to look for it.” And so if there are certain signs or symptoms that may include bone pain, significant fatigue, signs that we see like protein in the urine or a low hemoglobin or kidney dysfunction, these things need to push us to look for multiple myeloma. And then lastly, to look at disparity as an important area of work across the whole board that we need to better access to have better access for clinical trials and for the therapies that we know will benefit our patients, and that’s on us as physicians. But it’s also on the community at large, our regulators, our insurance companies.

Those are the kinds of things that I’m working on so that we can make a long-standing difference and really start to reduce this currently awful disparity in multiple myeloma.