Exploring the potential of Web 2.0 to address health disparities.

This article addresses use of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies by racial and ethnic minorities and explores the potential opportunities and challenges in leveraging Web 2.0 approaches to impact health disparities. These opportunities and challenges include developing approaches and methods to (a) identify strategies for integrating social media into health promotion interventions focused on major health-related issues that affect members of medically underserved groups; (b) amalgamate techniques to leverage and connect social-media technologies to other evidence-informed online resources; (c) integrate health communication best practices, including addressing health literacy issues; (d) capitalize on social networking to enhance access and communication with health care providers; and (e) advance current efforts and ongoing expansion of research participation by individuals from underserved communities.

Implementation of a Theory-based, Non-clinical Patient Navigator Program to Address Barriers in an Urban Cancer Center Setting.

Cancer patients face a myriad of psychosocial and practical issues. Especially challenging is the time from an initial diagnosis to the onset of treatment and patient navigation services are important to guide patients, especially underserved populations, through this maze of uncertainty. Here we report on the Pennsylvania Patient Navigator Demonstration Project (PaPND) designed to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and impact of a culturally and linguistically appropriate non-clinical navigator program. The development of the project, based on behavioral theory and community-based participatory research principles, is described. Forty-four cancer patients from diverse backgrounds participated, which included a baseline assessment, navigation services, and a four week and twelve week follow-up assessment. On average, participants experienced 1.8 barriers with transportation and insurance issues the most common barriers. The majority (56%) of the barriers required more than an hour of the navigator's time to address, with insurance, transportation and caregiver/support issues requiring the most time. Overall patients were fairly satisfied with the navigation services. The findings showed improvement patient's stress-related thoughts, cognition (understanding of their disease), expectancies and beliefs or values/goals, as well as self-efficacy of managing cancer related issues from the baseline to follow-up assessments. The evaluation results suggest that providing and connecting cancer patients to appropriate information to improve their understanding of their diagnosis and recommended treatments needs to be addressed, and where the integration of non-clinical and clinical navigation is essential. In addition, more attention to the assessment of psychosocial issues, such as the patients' emotional worries, and more comprehensive training in these areas would enhance navigation programs.