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The Role of Population Health Navigators
CANCER BUZZ
English - January 24, 2023 14:25 - 7 minutes - 10.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 29 ratingsHealth & Fitness Education accc cancer cancer care cancer center cancer community cancer treatment health healthcare hospital medical Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
The patient navigation world has a new kid on the block. Just when we thought we knew everything there was to know about navigators, the role has been reinvented by a concept so intuitive, it is difficult to believe that these navigators are not standard practice in oncology. Meet population health navigators—individuals dedicated to supporting a specific underserved population, including rural, Black, and Latinx populations, through culturally and linguistically competent navigation services for patients with cancer, their families, and their caregivers. These navigators share a cultural connection and language with their patients and are non-clinical professionals—legal specialists, social workers, advocacy experts—who bring valuable, real-world skills and experiences to patients’ cancer journey and help break down barriers more effectively by understanding the nuances of a patient’s culture, language, and identity.
Guest:
Emily Copus
Manager, Navigation Program
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
“It’s so important to have somebody who looks like you when you walk into a room, especially when you are talking about something so vulnerable as a cancer diagnosis and all the challenges that come along with it. It just allows you to connect with someone on a different level.”
Read more in “Population Health Navigators: An Innovative Approach for Supporting Underserved Patients” in Volume 38, Number One, Oncology Issues.
Resources:
The Community Health Worker: A Cancer Program’s Role in Population Health Efforts A Digital Population Tracking System Helps Improve Colorectal Cancer Survivorship Services Implementation of a Health Disparities & Equity Program at the Duke Cancer Institute Genetic Cancer Screening and Testing in a Medically Underserved Community Bridging the Gap: Early Detection of Cancer for the Medically Underserved