The Access to Telehealth for Underserved Cancer Patients (AcT) program proactively addresses patient portal, telehealth, and other telemedicine barriers for vulnerable cancer and other patients, in their own language.

AcT serves patients through a multi-pronged, multilingual approach

• Multilingual needs assessment to a) measure baseline telehealth knowledge, readiness, and use, and b) assess for telehealth-related needs including:
  • basic education about telehealth benefits
  • home internet and telehealth-capable devices
  • ability to access and use their patient portals
• Patient education on the basics and benefits of telehealth
• Patient portal/telehealth infrastructure development through the provision of telehealth capable devices (tablets, laptops, and smartphones) and assistance with obtaining and paying for home internet access and cellular service, to be expanded to telemonitoring. AcT’s partnership with MSK IT enables AcT to provide refurbished devices to patients, greatly expanding our reach.
• Patient portal, telehealth, and telemonitoring navigation for oncology care, primary care, and mental health services

AcT also addresses patients’ essential needs:

• Food insecurity
• Housing
• Transportation
• Legal

Follow-up surveys at 2 and at 6 months track AcT’s impact on patient portal and telehealth use, quality of life, health literacy, and patient-provider communication.

AcT Eligibility Criteria

• Cancer diagnosis (with flexibility for other cancer types)
• Receiving active cancer treatment (chemo, rad onc, hormonal etc.) and/or active follow-up care
• Noted telehealth device and/or internet access and/or patient portal/telehealth/ telemonitoring navigation need (self-report or provider report)