Health Tech and the Fight for Cancer Equity: Breaking Barriers in Cancer Care

What you’ll learn:

Cancer remains one of the greatest health challenges of our time, but its burden is not shared equally. For decades, marginalized communities—including people of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and rural populations—have disproportionately faced worse cancer care and outcomes. The “Inverse Care Law,” first coined by Dr. Julian Tudor Hart, highlights a troubling reality: those who need healthcare the most often have the least access to it. This pattern is particularly evident in cancer care. 

As healthcare evolves, technology presents a unique opportunity to bridge these gaps. From AI-driven diagnostics to telemedicine and medication-delivery innovations, digital health solutions have the potential to bring cancer care closer to those who need it most. However, technology alone is not enough—ensuring equitable access and adoption is critical to making real progress.

Long-Standing Inequities in Cancer Care

Historically, people from underserved communities have faced barriers at every stage of the cancer journey—from prevention and screening to treatment and survivorship. 

These disparities are not only a matter of access but also reflect broader structural inequities that have long impacted the healthcare system.

Addressing these disparities requires a multifaceted approach, combining technology, community partnerships, and investment in infrastructure, which supports equitable access to cancer care.

The Role of Health Technology in Advancing Cancer Equity

Technology is already reshaping oncology, improving early detection, making treatment more accessible, and creating solutions tailored to the realities of historically underserved communities. However, for health tech to truly reduce inequities, we must go beyond digital health literacy and focus on digital health readiness.¹

1. Digital Health Readiness: More Than Just Literacy

We often talk about digital literacy—the ability to use telehealth platforms, apps, and wearable devices. But while digital literacy is necessary, it is not sufficient. A person can know how to use an app, but if they don’t have internet access, trust in the healthcare system, or confidence in their ability to engage with tech-driven care, it won’t matter. This is where digital-health readiness comes in.

For example:

Health tech must be more than available—it must be accessible, trusted, and seamlessly integrated into the patient’s world—that means investing in broadband expansion, community outreach, and patient-centered digital-health solutions that don’t just “exist” but actually work for the people who need them.

2. AI and Digital Screening Tools for Earlier Detection

Early detection is key to improving cancer outcomes, but access to screening remains a major challenge in underserved areas. In rural America, for instance, less than 25% of women receive regular mammograms​.

Emerging technologies are addressing these gaps:

By making cancer screenings more accessible and community-driven, these technologies increase early detection and improve long-term outcomes.

3. Telemedicine and Holograms: Bringing Cancer Care Closer

For cancer patients in medically underserved areas, access to oncology care often requires time-consuming, costly travel, creating a significant barrier to timely treatment.

New innovations are helping bridge the distance gap:

These technologies help ensure that patients in rural areas and other medically under-resourced geographies receive expert cancer care without the logistical and financial strain of long-distance travel.

The Road Ahead: Who Will Lead the Charge?

While health technology holds enormous potential, addressing cancer inequities requires sustained investment and collaboration.

We are currently in an environment where public funding for healthcare solutions that serve society’s most vulnerable is being de-prioritized​.

In this shifting landscape, it remains to be seen which private-sector organizations will take the lead in addressing these gaps. Life sciences companies, health systems, and digital-health innovators and entrepreneurs have an opportunity to step in—leveraging technology, research, and partnerships to ensure that cancer care remains accessible to all, not just those with the most resources.

Final Thoughts

Ensuring equitable cancer care is not just about technology—it’s about commitment, investment, and leadership. The tools to close the gap exist, but they must be implemented in ways that truly meet the needs of historically marginalized communities.

At this critical moment, the question is not whether we have the capability to address cancer inequities—it is whether we have the collective will to do so. At Klick, advancing health equity isn’t aspirational—it’s a commitment woven into everything we do. Through initiatives like diversity recruitment in clinical trials, where our cross-culturally resonant campaign and community partnerships led to an unprecedented 50% enrollment rate from people of color in a COVID treatment trial, we’ve turned our ideas into action. We’ve explored culturally curated gaming as a pathway to self-care in Hispanic mental health and tackled the challenge of transforming GenAI tools from drivers of bias into engines of health equity. Now, we’re eager to bring this same innovative, impact-driven approach to oncology—partnering with organizations that share our vision of leveling the playing field in cancer care.

^{1 Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2823328}

^{2 The word “techquity” combines ‘technology” and “equity,” and refers to the use of technology to reduce disparities and improve equitable access to healthcare, education, and other essential services.}

^{3 Source: https://www.ajmc.com/view/in-cancer-care-building-trust-requires-understanding-meeting-patients-where-they-are}

^{4 https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5301163/funding-cuts-may-undermine-efforts-to-connect-rural-patients-and-specialists-remotely}