(first published on AnCanSpeak substack; subscribe for free)
Less than 50% of Patients trust their Providers. Now that’s a handpicked statistic from a survey conducted during Covid and published in JAMA Network in 2024. Healthcare professionals amongst our readers may have grounds to push back. That said, AnCan’s frequent experience from virtual conversations in our daily groups corroborates that anecdotally perhaps half our participants doubt the medical advice received. Our own 2024 survey backs that up. From our GU ASCO 2026 abstract4:
Seventy percent brought information from AnCan to their providers, 49% added new providers, and 40% changed their lead provider. Over half (54%) reported AnCan influenced their treatment path.
That doesn’t bode well for a trusting Patient-Provider relationship!
“Medicine is characterized by an inherent asymmetry of information and power between physicians and patients.” And goes on to say: “Demonstrating trustworthiness and restoring trust… requires reconsidering the balance of power between patients and health care professionals.”
This brings to mind a cartoon AnCan has employed in presentations:
Both JAMA pieces agree that our system is broken. They recite a fact that AnCan has previously noted… on average Providers interrupt Patients after a median of 11 seconds. In front of Providers, Patients can’t even begin to collect our thoughts, never mind express them.
The article troops out a whole bunch of remedies. Starting with teaching HCPs how to listen, it moves to improving health systems so you actually see your doc – not a surrogate practitioner, encouraging longer patient visits – so Providers have time to listen, and address mis- and disinformation. On a more grandiose scale, the article points out that differences in wealth, insurance status and education also influence Patient-Provider trust levels.
The closest either article comes to balancing the scales between Patient and Provider is to say:
Empowering patients through patient education and skill building, increased transparency in care, and shared clinical decision-making would also increase the collaboration in physician-patient relationships. Mutual partnerships between patients and their physicians may foster more stable patient trust instead of requiring patients to take a more tenuous leap of faith.
Noble words, but who is to take on this Sisyphean task?
AnCan likes to think we lead the way. Name one other organization whose mission is to make you your own best advocate. Already this week we fielded one call from a longtime legal Volunteer whose trust in an inestimable Medical Institution was violated because the Provider they spoke to committed the inexcusable and cardinal sin of simply failing to read the file. Or another Participant, a Medical Provider himself, who needed advice because an Institution was knowingly yet improperly billing him.
Being your own best advocate may not fully restore trust in our health system, but it goes a long way to leveling the playing field. It certainly improves patients’ self-esteem and in doing so, makes us feel immeasurably better.
rick davis rd@ancan.org
References
Perlis RH, Ognyanova K, Uslu A, et al. Trust in physicians and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 50-state survey of US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(7):e2424984. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984
Even little me speaks to a lot of people, some of whom have Prostate Cancer. And advanced Prostate Cancer and many of them are not acting as their own best advocate. It’s very important that people learn to take control and own and deal with their disease.
Maybe it’s a little long winded and boring, but it took me a year or 2, into my stage, 4, Prostate Cancer. Before I really took control and had one of those aggressive and idiot doctors who told me” i am a ph d in oncology, and you are a beginning student, ” and he tried to dictate to me everything, including his team of radiological, oncology, and his drugs and his procedures, and I watched a number of his patients who I know personally, because I worked with them die without doing all the things they could. Anyway, after a year two I was seeing consulting with good doctors and dana farber and at sloan, and I switched from advisors to sloan and very happy with my oncologist now…. It is very important for people to come to visit. Taking ownership and managing as their own number one, advocate. Okay, I’ll stop boring you because my doorbell is ringing. Thank you bye!”
Webinar: New Developments in Prostate Cancer Radioligand Therapies and How to Access Them!
Pluvicto has established radioligand therapy (RLT) as a highly viable treatment for Prostate Cancer. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to RLT options and when to use them.
Welcome experts Dr. Michael Hofman and Dr. Frankis Almaguel to address what’s novel and when patients can expect access. Dr. Hofman will cover new developments, and Dr. Almaguel will discuss clinical trials. Both will consider when RLT may come to non-metastatic men. This event was hosted by Cdr. Mike Crosby, Director of the Oncidium Foundation.
Click here for Dr. Michael Hofman’s presentation slides.
For the longest time, AnCan has been trying to figure out how to publish some of the brilliant, creative, insightful, or just plain informative posts that populate our Reminder/Newsletters, Blog Posts, website, and other nooks and crannies in our AnCan world.
Some may recall the request we made a 3 years or so ago for people to edit a compendium of AnCan writings that we could publish. Substack appears to have met that need, along with Gracie Evans, whom we’ve hired to create and curate the site, AnCanSpeak. Instructions are to take her candle into those aforementioned nooks and crannies to ferret out our best work. Gracie comes to AnCan with a background helping patients tell their own stories.
Here’s Gracie’s announcement:
We’re excited to share that AnCan now has a home on Substack! Our new publication, AnCanSpeak, is where you’ll find stories from our community, updates on our programs, and resources rooted in our mission of support, education, and advocacy, all delivered straight to your inbox. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or just recently joined, we’d love for you to be part of this next chapter. Subscribe today at ancanspeak.substack.com, and feel free to share it with anyone who might find comfort, connection, or helpful information there.
If you have any favorite pieces that you’ve stashed away, please let Gracie know at gracie@ancan.org . Or if you have any pieces you’d like us to consider relating to chronic conditions or AnCan, please send them to Gracie. Maybe some of the pieces our AnCan writers have created.
Like We Didn’t Know…. the value of care partner support groups
Most of our Readers are well aware of the value of a Care Partners Support Group – especially a peer-led one that does not inhibit conversation or stand on ceremony.
The message was partially echoed in an article in the Fall 2026 issue of Cancer Today, Finding Your Own Support . Written by regular columnist, K.J. Bannan. She wonders “if I, as a caregiver, mighthave benefited form similar level of group support” to her mother who died of lung cancer.
At anCan we’d say, definitely YES! But sadly, K.J. is not aware of AnCan and our groups. Now if someone feels like reaching out…
Overturning Insurance Denials: What happens when your payer says no!?
You’ve all been there – your Payer denies you for:
Drugs
Specialist
Providers Procedures
2nd Opinions
What do you do next? How do you avoid hours on the phone? How do you beat the runaround?
We cover all types of payers, from Private and Obama Plans to Commercial and CMS (Medicaid and Medicare).
Ask the Experts: Gil Solomon, MD – Retired Family Physician and Health Plan Medical Director, and Allie Antonucci, CPC, Market Access and Reimbursement Professional, present and discuss. Dr. John Antonucci hosts the event.
AnCan would like to thank our sponsors who make these presentations possible. Those are Novartis, Blue Earth Diagnostics, Tealix, and Bayer.
If you know your family carries or is at risk for a germline/inhetited mutation, the game changes. It may not be a parent, sibling, or child that creates concern…watch out for aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, even grandparents! Genetic Counselor and AnCan Advisory Board Member, Lindsey Byrne, MSCGC from NCCN/NCI The James CCC at Ohio State University, will lead you through the additional considerations to keep in mind if you face that situation. Including where to look and how to get others to test. Alongside her, we will have Dr. Pamela Munster, now at Stanford, who will present and discuss. We’ll also have a panel featuring some faces you are sure to recognize!
