Cancer Prevention and Control’s Colorectal Program has Two Abstracts Accepted for 2019 Dialogue for Action Meeting

Dialogue for Action® is an annual national conference that brings diverse stakeholders together to discuss the best ways to reinforce cancer screening, prevention, and risk reduction initiatives in communities across the nation. Held in late April this year, the conference will highlight contributions from Cancer Prevention and Control’s (CPC) WV Program to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening (WVPICCS) in two presentations:

1. Identifying Optimal Approaches to Scale Up Colorectal Cancer Screening: An Overview of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Learning Laboratory

Along with the CDC and other partners, WV PICCS contributed to a cost-effective analysis study presenting findings from the implementation of evidence-based initiatives to increase colorectal cancer screening at four Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) participating in a learning laboratory.  One WV FQHC increased screening update by 18.9%. The group’s work was recently published in Cancer Causes and Control.

2. Case Study of a Comprehensive Team-Based Approach to Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening

The WV PICCS partners with forty-four clinics to facilitate practice-based change through the use of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in West Virginia with the goal of increasing each clinic’s screening rate to 80% or at least 10% over baseline. Cheat Lake Family Medicine is a partner clinic that utilizes an effective team-based approach to colorectal cancer screening (CRC) and was highlighted in the abstract.

Utilizing a team-based approach is an effective way for primary care clinics to increase CRC screening rates. The success experienced at Cheat Lake has implications for other cancer and disease prevention efforts in the primary care setting. The presentation will describe their successful efforts to increase their overall colorectal cancer screening rate from 63% to 75.2% compared to an average increase from 51.1% to 60% for all cohort clinics from that same year.

For additional information about WV PICCS contact Mary Ellen Conn at meconn@hsc.wvu.edu.

Caption for the picture – left to right – Susan Eason, Mary Ellen Conn, Lauren Wright, and Taylor Daugherty. Team members not included in the picture are Adam Baus and Cecil Pollard.