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2024 The John & Daria Barry Foundation – PCF Young Investigator Award

Eliminating Inequities in Prostate Cancer Genetic Testing Access with an Artificial Intelligence – Assisted Health Coach Model

Daniel Kwon, MD
University of California, San Francisco

Mentors: Rahul Aggarwal, MD; Hala Borno, MD; Franklin Huang, MD, PhD

Description:

  • Germline genetic testing in patients with prostate cancer has the potential to personalize care and improve survival and quality of life. However, uptake has not been equitable, with Black patients less likely to undergo germline testing compared to White patients. There is a critical need for tailored approaches to expand germline testing access in underrepresented populations. 
  • Dr. Daniel Kwon is developing a tailored intervention for Black patients with prostate cancer, to promote racial/ethnic equity in germline testing for prostate cancer.
  • This intervention will consist of a racially concordant health coach to conduct outreach and pre-test counseling, combined with a novel, interactive artificial intelligence (AI) communication platform specialized for prostate cancer germline testing conversations.
  • This project will include assessments of any implicit racial biases of the AI platform, and interviews of patients and providers to determine the barriers, facilitators and acceptability of a health coach integrated with an AI communication platform.
  • The performance of the AI-assisted health coach model for improving uptake of germline testing will be validated in a multi-site study and compared with prior genetic counseling methods. 
  • If successful, this project will develop a scalable intervention that improves germline testing uptake in Black patients with prostate cancer, helping to reduce racial disparities in prostate cancer outcomes. 

What this means to patients: Germline genetic testing is recommended for patients with high-risk localized and advanced prostate cancer, to help personalize prostate cancer treatment, reveal personal risk of other conditions, and inform familial risk of health conditions. However, uptake of germline testing has been suboptimal, with Black patients being significantly underrepresented. Dr. Daniel Kwon is developing a novel AI-assisted health coach model to increase access to germline testing for Black patients with prostate cancer. This will reduce racial inequities in prostate cancer, as improving germline testing uptake for Black patients will increase receipt of targeted therapies and enrollment in clinical trials, and enable earlier detection in future generations, improving survival in Black communities.