Cancer-Specific and Centered Support for Underserved Populations (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for:  Clinical Psychologists, Counselors and Nurses

Course By: Tim Grigsby, PhD

Content By: Tarver, W. L., & Haggstrom, D. A. (2019). The use of cancer-specific patient-centered technologies among underserved populations in the United States: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet research, 21 (4), e10256.

Course Description: Medically underserved populations—groups with economic, linguistic, or cultural medical service barriers—are more likely to contain individuals from lower socioeconomic racial and/or ethnic minority groups. These individuals evidence a higher cancer burden relative to affluent, non-Hispanic whites. An understanding of patient-centered technology facilitators and barriers for cancer-specific care delivery and health information for underserved populations can reduce the burden of care and increase the likelihood of positive treatment outcomes. Various mobile health (mhealth) and internet-based health (ehealth) tools evidence potential for implementation across medically underserved populations, but challenges remain for promoting the uptake and continued use of such tools.

Learning Objectives:

1. List three characteristics that define medically underserved populations
2. Give one example of an mhealth intervention, and one example of an ehealth intervention, that has been used for cancer care in medically underserved populations
3. Describe ongoing challenges for implementing patient-centered technology interventions with medically underserved populations

Course Outline:

• Read and understand The use of cancer-specific patient-centered technologies among underserved populations in the United States: Systematic review
• Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives
• Integrate the facilitators and barriers for implementing patient-centered technology interventions for medically underserved populations while considering the related effectiveness of these interventions across the cancer care continuum
• Work through the post-test questions; keep in mind that answer selections should be derived from the respective article
• Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to better understand how patient-centered technologies can be used in cancer care for medically underserved populations

CA BRN REQUIRED CONTENT: IMPLICIT BIAS

Implicit biases incorporate an association that occurs outside of conscious awareness that may

resultantly lead to a negative patient evaluation derived from irrelevant characteristics; i.e.

gender and/or race. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Thirty-five studies

identified the existence of implicit bias in healthcare professionals; all correlational studies

evidenced a significant positive relationship between implicit bias levels and lower quality of

care (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). Continued research in health care settings, combined with

greater method homogeneity, should be employed to examine the occurrence and prevalence

of implicit biases in healthcare settings as a strategic approach for mitigating related disparities

(FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017).

Approvals: