Preface

The President’s Cancer Panel (the Panel) was established in 1971 by the National Cancer Act (P.L. 92-218) and is charged with monitoring the progress of the National Cancer Program—which includes all public and private activities focused on preventing, detecting, and treating cancers and on cancer survivorship—and identifying barriers to progress. The Panel investigates topics of high importance to the National Cancer Program for which actionable recommendations can be made. Information is collected through focused workshops and additional research, and findings and recommendations are compiled in reports to the President of the United States.

A key theme across many of the Panel’s prior meeting series and reports has been the importance of acknowledging and overcoming disparities in cancer risk, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes among different populations in the United States. For its 2023 series of meetings, the Panel continued its focus on inequities, this time through the lens of cancer patient navigation and technology. The Panel convened three public meetings to gather information from many stakeholders in this area, including patient advocates, community health organizations, professional associations, patient navigators, academia, technology innovators, government, and healthcare. Meeting summaries and recordings are available on the Panel website.

Patient navigation is known to reduce cancer health disparities and help patients access care. The Panel applauds ongoing work by many organizations—including the National Navigation Roundtable, Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, Oncology Nursing Society, and others—to advance patient navigation programs and services through research, creation of best practices, workforce development, and policy. The Panel urges policymakers and healthcare organizations to expand access to navigation services for cancer and other complex health situations, while recognizing that resource constraints prevent offering comprehensive navigation services to all patients.

Rapid advancements in technology have ushered in a new era of digital and connected health. The Panel sees exciting opportunities for technology to extend the reach of patient navigation, support cancer patients, and reduce health disparities. However, in some cases, the rapid proliferation and adoption of new technologies has outpaced federal guidance and equitable access, creating gaps that can interfere with care, exacerbate inequities, and leave many patients behind.

In this report, the Panel presents principles, priorities, and recommendations to address these areas of need. The Panel urges all stakeholders—healthcare providers, cancer patient navigators, researchers, patient advocacy groups, healthcare organizations, government agencies, technology leaders, and others—to collaborate to ensure that health technologies enable better cancer care, advance health equity, and reduce the burden of cancer on patients, families, and their communities.