Navigating Through Cancer

- If you're black and have cancer, you're more likely to die than if you were any other race
- More white women have breast cancer, and yet, black women still die more often of it
-Latinos have the highest instance of cervical cancer, and yet, blacks still die more
- There is more prostate cancer instances and deaths in blacks by a lot, like almost twice as likely to die
- Asians have the lowest instance of cancer, but this is different for each group (Pinoys have greater risk of prostate cancer, )

The reason why there are such gaps in healthcare has a lot to do with access. There's a lot of way in which the healthcare system doesn't allow black people to get healthcare. One is that most black people are poor and have no insurance. Also, there is no cure to cancer so you can either A) Engage in low risk behaviors to NOT get it or B) Get it detected early before it spreads and get proper and timely care. The problem is that many groups, especially racial minorities, urban poor, and isolated country folk, can't do B because they don't speak english or they don't know where to go or they don't trust "white people medicine". Hence, there are PATIENT NAVIGATORS.

Like it sounds, the medical system has a new form of healthcare where workers will navigate these groups through the healthcare maze. These workers both 1) Understand the system and 2) Understand the culture of people they serve so that they understand both sides of the reasons why these people aren't getting care.

Some examples:

-2 patient navigators reduced the no-show rate for colonoscopies from 67% to unly 5% in the Bronx
- Spanish speaking navigators got a 100% show up rate to mamographies (breast cancer screenings)

Expect to hear more about Patient Navigators as research is being conducted and programs keep getting funded. This is a big thing that will change healthcare forever to grant access to groups once excluded.

(Now I must write a 30 page paper on Patient Navs)