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A cancer care delivery model that specifically accounts for social determinants of health not only improved overall cancer survival rates, but closed racial health disparities in cancer care outcomes, researchers reported at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting.
Particularly, the healthcare delivery model—which included protocol to flag and address social determinants of health—improved cancer survival rates to 94 percent among both White and Black patients, closing a steep racial health inequity, the researchers said.
“Thousands of studies have looked at racial disparities in health care, but until recently, very few studies have implemented interventions to eliminate those disparities,” Matthew A. Manning, MD, lead study author and radiation oncologist and chief of oncology at Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina, said in a press release. “This study shows that it can be done.”