An ongoing pilot project aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the Health Equity Report Card as a tool for improving the quality and equity of cancer care and continues the Elevating Cancer Equity collaboration from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), and National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF).
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Feb. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers in the United States—joins the call to Close the Care Gap on World Cancer Day, a global awareness day organized by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) every February 4, by launching a new Health Equity Report Card (HERC) pilot program. This worldwide message acknowledges the many lives that are lost due to disparities in cancer outcomes. NCCN’s work improving and facilitating quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care so all patients can live better lives is ongoing around the world. Today’s announcement explains more on how the HERC pilot program came about and what it is meant to achieve.
The impact of structural and interpersonal racism is one of the major causes of disparities in cancer outcomes in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts and Figures 2023, racial and ethnic disparities in the cancer burden largely reflect long-standing inequities in socioeconomic status and access to high-quality health care, which can be attributed to historical and persistent structural racism in the U.S. experienced by all people of color.
To help address these issues, NCCN, ACS CAN, and NMQF launched the Elevating Cancer Equity initiative in 2020, featuring a working group chaired by Robert A. Winn, MD, Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, and Shonta Chambers, MSW, Executive Vice President of Health Equity and Community Engagement at the Patient…
