White House medical leaders visit UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Monday, March 11, White House medical leaders took a trip to the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The purpose of this visit was to figure out how to use new federal programming to best help patients and families.

UVA’s Comprehensive Cancer Center is working to offer all patients a nurse navigator, someone to be at a patient’s side through all the steps of the diagnosis.

“The nurse has a lot of knowledge of cancer, the particular type of cancer the patient has,” UVA Health CEO Craig Kent said, “Cancer is a difficult diagnosis that requires lots of tests, requires putting together all of these different tests, and then making a position where all of the different complexities of patient care. The nurse navigator has the ability and the knowledge to be able to accomplish that.”

This is something not all Americans are able to afford, but President Joe Biden is working to change that.

Through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, more insurance companies are covering that cost.

“150 million Americans now, through their insurance companies are able to be reimbursed. They’re also able to be paid for through Medicare,” Deputy Assistant to the President on Cancer Moonshot push Doctor Danielle Carnival said, “I heard really great examples of what that looks like. Specifically for patients, how the process was more supported, but also how they got to diagnosis faster, got biopsy on time.”

Dr. Carnival says she is now going to take what she learned at UVA and use it across the country, moving forward on the program’s task.

“Achieving a goal as ambitious as ending cancer as we know it, which is the goal of the Biden Cancer Moonshot harkens back to putting a person on the moon,” Dr. Carnival said.

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