The Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute

About Us

Patient Navigation was founded by Harold P. Freeman, M.D. in 1990, when he initiated and developed the first Patient Navigation program in Harlem to reduce disparities in access to diagnosis and treatment of cancer, particularly among poor and uninsured people. In 2007, as a direct result of a $2.5M grant received from the Armgen Foundation, the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention established The Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute (HPFPNI) to support Patient Navigation training to individuals associated with organizations. The Institute opened its doors to address the growth in Patient Navigation programs, but also to offer standards and best practices that are customizable to meet each program's needs.

The Core principles of the Institute, applied to save lives from cancer and chronic diseases include:

  1. Inform people about the need for certain recommended examinations and provide timely access to such examinations
  2. Eliminate any barriers to timely care across the. Entire health care continuum
  3. A critical function of navigation is to eliminate any barrier to stimely diagnosis and treatment in patients who have abnormal or suspicious findings

The Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute, located in New York City, serves as the gold standard in Patient Navigation and offers the only certificate of completion program in Patient Navigation endorsed by Harold P. Freeman, M.D. The Institute's goals are to:

  • Promote standards for Patient Navigation programs through an emphasis on the Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Model
  • To help others learn best practices by ensuring that programs adhere to the peer reviewed recognized definition and measures for Patient Navigation set forth by the Patient Navigation Research Program (PNRP)

To date, the Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute has trained over 280 in the skill of successful Patient Navigation and has served leading organizations such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Cleveland Clinic, and the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention with training programs aimed at increasing their efficiencies and supporting retention rates of patients via Patient Navigation.

With funding support by:

Amgen Foundation

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