JCO Oncology Practice has published an article on rural cancer care as part of the State of Cancer Care in America series.
“Closing the Rural Cancer Care Gap: Three Institutional Approaches” draws from data presented during the second State of Cancer Care in America live event as well as supporting literature. The article summarizes barriers to delivering high-quality care in rural communities and approaches to addressing such challenges and updates ASCO’s rural workforce data.
Roughly 15% to 19% of the U.S. population live outside of major metropolitan centers, and rural residence has become a predictor for worse cancer outcomes. The article found that decreasing rural disparities requires increasing patient access to care.
The article reviews three models of successful rural health interventions that reflect individual community needs and available resources. It is also accompanied by six commentaries on rural cancer care that cover a variety of topics, including the importance of using local expertise to improve rural cancer outcomes, multilevel approaches throughout the United States to handle rural cancer care disparities, and the important role telehealth has played in rural areas.
Read the article and the rest of the package in JCOOP. The list of the accompanying papers includes:
- Closing the Rural Cancer Care Gap: Three Institutional Approaches, Levit et al
- Leveraging Local Expertise to Improve Rural Cancer Care Outcomes Using Project ECHO: A Response to Levit et al (in press), Sanjeev Arora
- Cancer Care in the Rural United States: A Visitor’s Perspectives From Appalachian Ohio, Pine Ridge South Dakota and Sidney Montana, Monica Bertagnolli
- Disruptive Innovation in Rural Cancer Care: Opening the Doors Amid the Pandemic, Susan Dentzer
- Telehealth Is a Sustainable Population Health Strategy to Lower Costs and Increase Quality of Cancer Care in Rural Utah, David Michael Gill
- Rural Cancer Disparities in the United States: A Multilevel Framework to Improve Access to Care and Patient Outcomes, K. Robin Yabroff.
Learn more about ASCO’s commitment to increasing rural access to cancer care and the Rural Cancer Care Task Force online at asco.org/ascoaction.
© 2020. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
