Industry Voices—AI should help cancer patients survive the healthcare system
Cancer care navigators are an invaluable resource, but there are nowhere near enough navigators to meet the scale of the need. This is where AI can make a meaningful difference, write the Digital Medicine Society's Jennifer Goldsack and former CMS Chief Medical Officer Lee Fleisher, M.D.
Cancer treatment in the United States has significantly improved, with a 35% drop in cancer death rates over the past 35 years. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to further enhance this progress by revolutionizing cancer care navigation. However, the complex healthcare system surrounding innovative cancer treatments remains difficult for patients and their families to navigate, particularly when it comes to accessing Comprehensive Cancer Centers and NCI-designated Cancer Centers.
Cancer patients face numerous challenges, from coordinating specialists, scheduling scans, and tracking medications to understanding pathology reports, appealing insurance denials, and managing side effects. Such burdens can feel overwhelming, leaving patients questioning whether they are fighting the cancer or the system. Cancer navigation has been shown to improve time to start treatment by 70%, enhance treatment adherence by 71%, and positively impact quality-of-care indicators in 81% of adherence studies.
Despite the proven benefits, there is a shortage of cancer navigators to meet the demand. AI-enabled navigation tools can help address this gap by assisting patients and their loved ones with various aspects of care, such as preparing for appointments, organizing medical records, explaining clinical language, tracking medications and tests, identifying transportation or financial assistance, and signaling when human support is needed.
AI navigation solutions can also help patients identify appropriate clinical trials, supportive care services, mental health resources, rehabilitation programs, or palliative care at earlier stages of their illness.
However, it is crucial that AI navigation tools meet high standards for privacy, security, and accuracy and cater to individuals with limited digital literacy, older devices, limited English proficiency, or inconsistent internet access. While AI cannot replace human care, it can help patients and their families access the necessary resources and support, ensuring that the benefits of modern cancer care are accessible to all.
Written by urgent.news from Fierce Healthcare's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
