To start off, what was your team looking to solve in patient care?

So the Pre-Intake Navigation Program was created in response to a challenge facing many of our patients seeking care here at MD Anderson.

So each year about about a hundred thousand individuals would contact us for cancer care, but ultimately can't access services because of either insurance limitations or network restrictions.

And too often patients and their families would spend weeks and weeks gathering records and submitting referrals and waiting for appointments only to learn weeks into that, that their insurance would not allow them to receive care at UT MD Anderson.

So as, As an institution whose mission is to end cancer, we recognize both an opportunity and a responsibility to provide patients with information and education much earlier in that process.

So cancer is overwhelming enough without the added stress of unexpected financial barriers and insurance challenges.

So PIN was created.

What would you say to others about creating new programs in an environment with challenges like workforce and budget?