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Patient Navigation is an intervention aimed at addressing cancer health disparities by eliminating barriers to diagnosis, treatment, and services. Three major patient navigation (PN) programs (The National Cancer Institute, The American Cancer Society &The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) are underway to address the needs of medically underserved cancer patients. There has not been national training with a defined curriculum for patient navigators (PNs). Curriculum for training the PNs was created by experts from the three programs. The efficacy of training was evaluated using a pre- and posttest. The data show that overall the posttest scores improved from the pretest. In addition, having a high school education or greater or having more years of work experience were significantly related to improvements on the posttest. The first successful standardized national training program was attended by 116 PNs representing 85 cities with the goal to reduce health disparities for medically underserved.

The Brown Bag Lunch subcommittee of the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, was developed to provide an informal supportive environment that would allow staff to discuss clinically focused topics and best practices, preview presentations for meetings, or both. The initial goal was to hold six sessions per year. This article describes the first year's experience of the Brown Bag Lunches, the barriers encountered (e.g., attendance) and potential solutions (e.g., increase advertising), goals for the second year, and tips for conducting this type of educational offering in other healthcare settings.