Legal Needs and Health Outcomes for People with Cancer in Medical-Legal Partnership Programs: A Systematic Review

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) integrate lawyers into the medical team to address patients’ unmet legal needs that create barriers to good health and well-being (i.e., “health-harming legal needs”) and improve health outcomes. Given the growing popularity of MLP as an innovative healthcare model, this review has two objectives: to identify peer-reviewed literature measuring (1) cancer patients’ legal needs, and (2) outcomes for cancer patients after receiving MLP legal services. A systematic literature search was conducted in concordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) for the period 2006- 2022. Four articles met the inclusion criteria for objective one: three articles, including one that also met the inclusion criteria for objective one, met the inclusion criteria for objective two, for a total of six articles. Literature confirms that when screened, cancer patients regularly struggle with health-harming legal needs. Further published research is needed to better identify and understand the unmet legal needs of cancer patients and the impact of MLPs on cancer patients’ outcomes

Reach out emergency department: Partnering with an economically disadvantaged community in the development of a text-messaging intervention to address high blood pressure

© 2020 Society for Public Health Education. Background. Hypertension affects nearly 30% of the U.S. adult population. Due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile phone usage, text messaging offers a promising platform for interventions to assist in the management of chronic diseases including hypertension, including among populations that are historically underserved. We present the intervention development of Reach Out, a health behavior theory–based, mobile health intervention to reduce blood pressure among hypertensive patients evaluated in a safety net emergency department primarily caring for African Americans. Aims. To describe the process of designing and refining text messages currently being implemented in the Reach Out randomized controlled trial. Method. We used a five-step framework to develop the text messages used in Reach Out. These steps included literature review and community formative research, conception of a community-centered behavioral theoretical framework, draft of evidence-based text messages, community review, and revision based on community feedback and finalization. Results. The Reach Out development process drew from pertinent evidence that, combined with community feedback, guided the development of a community-centered health behavior theory framework that led to development of text messages. A total of 333 generic and segmented messages were created. Messages address dietary choices, physical activity, hypertension medication adherence, and blood pressure monitoring. Discussion. Our five-step framework is intended to inform future text-messaging-based health promotion efforts to address health issues in vulnerable populations. Conclusion. Text message–based health promotion programs should be developed in partnership with the local community to ensure acceptability and relevance