Penn started giving cancer patients free rides to appointments. It helped reduce no-shows and increase clinical trial enrollment.

University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center is attempting to address one of the most common challenges cancer patients face: Lack of transportation to critically important appointments. Now in its fifth year, the cancer center’s transportation program provides free rides to hundreds of cancer patients and has recently expanded to include certain cancer screening appointments, such as colonoscopies and mammograms.

The program is part of a community outreach initiative to address barriers to care. Organizers say it has helped reduce appointment no-shows and enabled more patients to enroll in clinical trials that require repeat visits to medical clinics. Just 2% of Abramson’s hematology oncology patients missed their appointments between July and November of this year — dramatically lower than the double-digit no-show rates that are common among cancer centers. And 24% of Abramson patients were enrolled in a clinical trial in 2021, up from 12% five years earlier.

Penn launched its rideshare program in 2017 through a pilot with Ride Health, a New York-based health-care company founded by Penn graduate Imran Cronk.