To help older patients become digitally literate, the "Patient Empowerment Network" offers a free program that teaches older adults with cancer valuable technology skills.
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While telehealth has expanded the delivery of healthcare services, many populations – including older adults with cancer – lack the know-how to use technology to their advantage during their cancer journey. Lower levels of digital literacy impede patients from accessing timely information, feeling empowered to ask questions, and seeking the best treatment for their diagnosis. To support patients to become DIGITALLY EMPOWERED, learn about a free program from the Patient Empowerment Network that teaches older adults with cancer valuable technology skills to engage more digitally.
Andrea Conners
Executive Director,
Patient Empowerment Network
“There are cultural differences and generational issues that really are barriers to patients finding their voice and seeking out the best treatment for their individual diagnosis.”
This podcast is part of the ACCC education program, Digital Bridges. This project is supported by Merck.
CANCER BUZZ: Welcome back to CANCER BUZZ. I'm your host Summer Johnson. Today, a free program that helps older adults with cancer learn valuable technology skills and can empower them to participate in their health journey.
The pandemic's effect on tele-health opened up new ways of care for many patients with cancer, but for some populations tele-health services can widen disparities. Andrea Conners is the Executive Director of the Patient Empowerment Network. The organization that created the DIGITALLY EMPOWERED program.
Andrea Conners: I was the care partner for my mother who is diagnosed with a late-stage terminal illness. Towards the end of her disease, she was completely confined to her home, and I saw all the loneliness and the mental health challenges – in addition to the physical symptoms that she was experiencing that were really an incredibly heavy burden for her to carry. My mother was older when she was diagnosed and in her mid-to-late seventies, and it didn't really have technology skills.
And so I spent a lot of time with her working on, you know, how to access the internet, how to find funny videos that would make her laugh on YouTube and spent a lot of time doing that with her and then realized we should be doing that for more people who might not have the skills, but need the access, need the skills in order to use techconnology to their advantage during their cancer journey.
CANCER BUZZ: So that led you to create this program. Can you tell us about it?
Andrea Conners: So, we started a program which we call the ‘Digital Sherpa program’, where we utilize digital natives – college students – to offer workshops hands-on workshops with older adults to teach them how to turn on their computer, how to use their mouse, how to access their email account that they've been locked out of for six months because they forgot their email address and didn't know how to reset their password. So, we launched that program with the support of cancer support community and Moffitt Cancer Center.
We launched that program across the U.S., and we individually trained individual people, which was, you know, a very low reach, high touch sort of activity. And then we started thinking, well, how can we get this program into the hands of more people? And it's a little bit of a conundrum to figure out how to address a technology or digital issue using technology or digital resources - we took all the learnings from those hands-on workshops that we've done. And we created small, short, fun, little video modules that anybody can access by the click of a link to be able to educate themselves about how to use technology to their, during their cancer journey.
CANCER BUZZ: What are some of the ways that older adults are at a disadvantage in this new environment?
Andrea Conners: I think that there are cultural and generational issues that can really impede people from finding their voice and feeling empowered, to ask questions, to seek second opinions, and we know how important it is with a cancer diagnosis to see a specialist and seek that second opinion so that you are getting, particularly in this era of precision medicine and targeted therapies that you are getting the most personalized care as your first-line treatment right out of the gate, and not as your second or third or later stage treatment.
And to your point, there are cultural differences. There are generational issues that really are barriers to patients finding their voice and seeking out the best treatment for their individual diagnosis.
CANCER BUZZ: What are some of the challenges that older adults with cancer have? And why is digital literacy specifically for older patients with cancer so important?
Andrea Conners: So, you know, I'd start with saying that the American Cancer Society reported this year that nearly 2 million people will likely be diagnosed with cancer in 2022. And that equates to about 5,250 new cases per day. And of those cases, you know, we know that at least 60% of the people who are diagnosed with cancer are 65 or older. And, you know, one of the things we know about cancer is that depending on the type, the disease can progress really quickly. Which is why access to timely and up-to-date information is so critical.
You know, in today's digital age, and, and I think with COVID forcing everybody to really engage more digitally, it's a blessing and a curse. Because we live in this amazing digital age, we have access to a wealth of resources on the internet, you know, with the click of a mouse, we can find information on the latest research clinical trials and new drug treatments, you name it. But for an older generation who hasn't been brought up with the internet, the online space can be overwhelming, confusing, and a really different and scary place to navigate.
And so, you know, there's an opportunity to acquire information, but it can be out of reach for many people. And that's why digital literacy is so important that we look at it from both an equity perspective, as well as from a generational perspective.
CANCER BUZZ: How can providers put patients in touch with your program?
Andrea Conners: Excellent question. So, the program is available on our website, www.powerfulpatients.org. And one of the things that we are very actively is working with providers, whether they be clinicians, nurses, navigators, social workers, to ensure that they know about this program and that they can very easily hand that program over via a link or a QR code to the patients that they work with.
So again, that program is free. It's available, translated into Spanish. We hope to continue to add modules to that program and continue to translate it into other languages. Each module comes with a downloadable guide that you can either look at on your phone, or you can print that gives you step-by-step instructions for the things that we teach you in the video.
CANCER BUZZ: In the show notes, you can find more resources on the DIGITALLY EMPOWERED program and how to connect your patients. Next week on CANCER BUZZ free legal help in the cancer care setting to address social determinants of health. Until then this is Summer Johnson.
CANCER BUZZ: CANCER BUZZ is a resource of the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC).
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s)/faculty member(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of their employer(s) or the Association of Cancer Care Centers.
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