PADDLE RAISE

Care Inequities in Advanced Cancer & Limited English Proficiency | Rashmi Sharma, MD, MHS

Cancer affects us all, but it doesn't affect us all equally. This year's Hope Gala paddle raise will accelerate discoveries by supporting diversity in cancer research grants at the University of Washington. We want to end cancer as we know it for everyone, but this vision won’t become a reality until we are all working to end cancer disparities for every community.

At The University of Washington, Dr. Rashmi Sharma is studying how to help eliminate inequities in the delivery of high-quality, palliative care for patients with LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and advanced cancer. 

Dr. Sharma and her team will do this by:

Using electronic health record data from a large health system to detect inequities in the quality of care across four palliative care domains for patients with advanced cancer and LEP who have died.
Interviewing patients with advanced cancer and LEP and their family members, cross-cultural mediators, interpreters, clinicians, and administrators to identify specific patient/family, clinician, and system-level barriers and facilitators to accessing high quality palliative care.
Conducting additional interviews with community leaders from five LEP communities to identify resource gaps in the community and identify community-based organization’s capacity to support high quality palliative care for patients with LEP.