Strategies to improve breast cancer care in vulnerable populations. (September 2013) - Veluswamy, Rajwanth R
SUMMARY Despite remarkable medical progress in breast cancer detection and treatment, racial and socioeconomic disparities in care continue. To eliminate these inequities in care, a multilevel approach to effectively address individual- and population-based barriers is required. Patient-centered interventions, including patient navigators, have proven valuable by improving diagnostic resolution rates and times. System-level interventions providing organizational changes are effective in increasing follow-up adherence and improving standardization of care. Ultimately, to sustain these efforts requires policy changes with far-reaching potential to increase healthcare coverage and access to these resources. As these changes go into effect, ongoing monitoring of disparity trends and continued redress of remediable causes is critical.