University of California San Francisco & Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation

University of California San Francisco

University of California San Francisco will create an in-person and virtual-based patient navigation program to enhance the quality of cancer care for English, Chinese, and Vietnamese patients newly diagnosed with colorectal, liver, or lung cancer in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Need

Cancer is the most common cause of death for Asian Americans, but many patients do not receive appropriate treatment or patient-centered survivorship care. Two-thirds of Asian Americans speak a language other than English at home, and 31% are not proficient in English. Although many Asian Americans report using the internet for health or medical information, there are very few health-related web-based platforms available for Asian American patients, particularly for those who do not speak English well. Furthermore, there are no published literature to the use of patient navigation in Asian American cancer patients. 

Project

The goal of the Patient COUNTS project is to evaluate an intervention to improve the quality of cancer care and support for newly diagnosed cancer patients to receive timely, guideline-concordant care, and obtain appropriate support for associated logistical, socio-economic, and psychosocial stress. Project COUNTS will identify and recruit patients newly diagnosed with colorectal, liver, or lung cancer through the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry to participate in a patient navigation program, either in-person or virtually through a web-based portal delivered in English, Chinese, and Vietnamese. This innovative virtual program will provide culturally and linguistically appropriate cancer navigation and connect patients to community supportive services.

Project Leaders

Tung Nguyen, Tung.Nguyen@ucsf.edu and Scarlett Lin Gomez, Scarlett.Gomez@ucsf.edu