When it comes to medical care, many factors can determine the types of treatment and medications that are available to patients. Often times, populations with less access to adequate care, particularly with regards to specialized treatment for diseases like prostate cancer, may experience poorer outcomes.
“We tend to think of it [access] as varying by different racial groups,” says Samuel Washington, MD, second year clinical urologic oncology fellow in the UC San Francisco Department of Urology. “But across all racial lines those who are underserved have different outcomes compared to those who have better access to care. It’s about learning how those similarities are affecting broad populations and, in general, how we can optimize outcomes for the underserved.”
Though the problem of access is easily recognized, the methods for solving it are complex and less understood….
